The Marauders Story
by TearsofBlack101
Summary: Ever wondered how JKR's Marauder's grew up? Well, you won't find that here, because though this is the story of the Marauders, it is the story of my Marauders. Which is different from hers, and is centered much more around Lily Evans.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Anything that you recognize belongs to J.K. Rowling. Although, I wrote this over a long stretch of time, and was inspired by a lot of things, so if you think that maybe my work looks a bit like yours, tell me and I'll credit you. Though I tried very hard not to let other people's ideas creep into my writing, you all know how it is.

"Now, you're sure you'll be alright?" Marium Potter asked her son nervously, she had spent the whole morning fretting and this was about the millionth time she'd asked.

"For the millionth time, mother, yes." James Potter replied with a tinge of annoyance (told you).

Unfortunately, Marium was not the kind of person who would be satisfied knowing that her son would be taking a train to a wizards school far, far away and wouldn't be returning for the whole year, which she had also asked him about many, many times.

"And you know you can come home for Christmas, dear?" she asked, raising a hand to attempt to flatten his jet black and incredibly messy hair.

This was James Potter's first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and even agreeing to that had taken quite a bit of coaxing from his father.

James tried not to hold back an eye roll and instead mussed his hair again and retorted, "Yes, and I will if it's terrible, but from what I've heard from Dad, the castle is just to cool to leave!"

They were standing in the train station, just outside the barrier between platforms nine and ten. James had started looking around anxiously. His father had gone to Hogwarts, but his mother had gone to Beauxbatons, so she didn't know any better than James did how to get onto platform 9¾.

James' father, Gregory, was gazing around the station, admiring the muggles and their magic-less ways. He wasn't paying any attention to his family, but looked up and smiled when his wife asked "But how do we get onto the platform?"

Gregory smiled and said "'We'? honey, we don't have to go in with him. I think he'd prefer to go in alone." James glanced at his father with relief pouring out of his eyes.

"Oh, but Greg!" Marium began, "What if-" but James shook his head vigorously.

Gregory put an arm around his wife and pointed his other at the barrier in the direction of the barrier in front of them. James followed his gaze and pushed his trolley in front of him, over to the barrier.

"What about it?" he asked sarcastically.

James was the kind of kid who's parents had quite a lot of money and strongly disliked scolding him, so not only was he rather spoiled but got away with just about anything.

Gregory, who had a slightly fading memory, and thought he had told his son, looked at James with disbelief, "Walk into it!" he said loudly.

"W-what?" James inquired nervously.

Gregory smiled and said as slowly as he could, "Walk…into…it…"

James was still staring at the platform in disbelief, then he set his jaw and walked right into the barrier wall, or rather… through the wall?

"Whoa…" he whispered just after he opened his eyes. He was standing in front of a huge scarlet steam engine, with the words _The Hogwarts Express_ in appealing gold lettering on the side.

"Goodbye son, try to get into _some_ trouble, all right?" James heard his father say from the other side.

James walked to the side of the platform, people walking quickly past him, he wasn't paying them much attention, but then he heard a cruel voice.

"_You just get into Slytherin, will you?" _

Poor guy, James thought. A small boy with black hair was standing in front of a very angry but very beautiful woman. James didn't want to know what that family was all about, so he pushed his trolley up to the train and set about lifting his trunk into it, along with his owl, Dana. Unfortunately, James was quite scrawny and couldn't lift it without help. For the first time in his life, he wanted his parents.

"Need a hand?" a voice behind him asked, James turned to see the small boy he had seen earlier standing there, looking at James' trunk with a raised eyebrow.

"Sure," James replied, trying not to sound like he needed it. Like he was doing this kid the favor.

"I'm Sirius Black, by the way," the boy said with a heave. They got the trunk into the train, then he looked hopelessly at his own.

"James Potter," he supplied, "Need a hand?" James mocked, then put a hand on Sirius' trunk.

Sirius grinned and grabbed his trunk, they heaved it in then climbed in after their things, James pulled Dana with him. They sat down in an empty compartment. They were early and definitely had time to waste.

James looked at the boy across the compartment from him. He didn't look like a Slytherin, but then again, he had never actually seen one…

There were four houses at Hogwarts, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Gregory had been in Gryffindor, and these things generally went with the family, so James was almost certain that he would end up there too.

"So, what house do you think you'll be sorted into?" he asked, though he knew the answer. This boy was a Slytherin, and James would scarcely be able to talk to him.

Gregory had had an amazing time a Hogwarts, full of adventure and trouble making, he enjoyed reminiscing to his son, so James probably knew more about the old castle than any other first year, he also knew that a hat decided what house you would be sorted into.

"Well," Sirius began sourly, "I suppose I'll be sorted into Slytherin, everyone else in my family has been… but I really don't want to be,"

James sat there for a moment, wondering if he should interrupt the boys brooding and tell him what house he expected to be in.

He said, "I'm a Gryffindor, and proud to be one. Not that there's anything wrong with Slytherin, but my Dad was a Gryffindor, and so was everyone in my family, so I'll probably get into there."

Sirius let out half a snort but before James could say anything the door opened and a sort of sickly looking dirty blonde boy walked in.

"Mind if I sit here?" he asked quietly, his dark blue eyes shining with hope.

James glanced at Sirius and said "Uh, sure… I'm James Potter, by the way,"

The boy that had just sat down next to Sirius looked thoroughly frightened, but neither dark haired boy really knew why.

"Remus Lupin," he said quietly, then turned his attention to his shoes. James gave Sirius another glance, which Sirius retuned. They seemed to be having a silent conversation, which apparently James won.

"I'm Sirius Black." He said shortly. Remus looked frightened again, but managed to look up from his shoes and give them both a very small, very quick smile.

James and Sirius had hit it off, even though they knew they would be put into different houses, and right now they looked like they had known each other for a very long time. Remus felt quite out of place since he generally didn't meet many people at all, let alone make friends with them.

James, on the other hand, was very out going and talked to many people, he surely wasn't about to be scared off by a sickly eleven year old.

"So, Remus, what house do you think you'll be sorted into?" he asked with a smile.

Remus' dark blue eyes widened slightly and said "H-House?"

Sirius half-snorted, but looked at the boy and explained, with James' help, everything they knew about Hogwarts.

"Anything from the trolley?" a short woman asked from the doorway. She actually looked rather frightened, which highly amused Sirius. James strode over to her and cleaned out her stock of Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. He dumped them on the seat next to him and gestured for the other two boys to help themselves.

"James," Sirius said with a grin, "Mate, try to get into Slytherin, all right? I'm just too evil to get into Gryffindor,"

James laughed but secretly wished that Sirius wouldn't get into Slytherin, he had heard from his father, and cousin, and uncle, and basically everyone that had gone to Hogwarts, that Gryffindors and Slytherins didn't get along, and it wasn't okay to try.

A few hours later the train came to a halt in Hogsmead, a completely wizard-city, a bit away from Hogwarts.

"Firs' years! Firs' years! Over here!" a booming voice came from outside the train, the three boys exited to see the hugest man they had ever seen, calling them over to him. they made their way to where he stood, next to a narrow path.

"This all?" he asked, as if they'd left someone behind. Then he gestured down the path and told them all to follow him. They did, without question, and without much conversation. It wasn't a terribly long path and soon enough they were at the end of it.

There was a beautiful lake in front of them with a little fleet of boats floating in it, and across the lake lay Hogwarts. There was a collective gasp from everyone present, a great castle with sparkling windows and high towers.

"No more'n four to a boat!" the giant man announced. James, Sirius and Remus climbed into a boat, and soon a chubby boy named Peter Pettigrew joined them. "Everybody in? All righ'. FORWARD!" he shouted. With a jolt every one of the boats drifted forward, carrying the nervous first years to their new school.

They entered the castle through the huge front double doors. When they reached the other side, a stern looking woman in green robes ushered them in, looking disapprovingly at them all. Nobody had told them to change into their school robes.

"Good evening. I am Professor McGonagall, Transfiguration department. I am also the head of house for Gryffindor. In a few moments you will walk through those doors and be sorted into your houses." She paused for a moment, her gaze resting on Remus.

"I will call your name alphabetically. Sit on the stool. I will place the sorting hat on your head and it will tell you which house you will be sorted into. Trouble making will lose points for your house, classroom achievements will earn your house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points wins the house cup."

James already knew all of this, which was fortunate because he wasn't paying attention. He was letting his eyes and his mind wander through the other first years.

The next few minutes passed fairly quickly. A few people got sorted into this house and that house and then 'Black, Sirius' was called.

He nervously sat down on the stool in front of the whole school. Professor McGonagall set the hat on his head. For more than a long moment Sirius just sat there, then a voice said in his ear,

"Well, well, well. Sirius Black… I expect you want to be put into Slytherin, eh? Oh, no? Well, you would do well there, and your parents would be very pleased- oh? Oh, haha, you don't want to please your parents, you wish to rebel? Hmm, well, there is quite a bit of courage here… and loyalty to friends… brains…. You would do well in any of the houses but I see… Better be GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table cheered, though some not nearly as loudly as they had done the others, Sirius sighed in relief, and joined his new house.

A few more people went by, then "Lupin, Remus" was called, and the sickly boy walked up to the stool. He glanced at the ceiling, which was enchanted to look like the night sky.

The stars gave him comfort but the nearly full moon mocked him. He shuddered, sat down and was shut into darkness as the sorting hat fell over his eyes.

"Hmm…" a voice said to him, "Hmm…. Well, you are very brave, and you will have to conquer many things on your journey… Loyalty, you will need to give and receive in large quantities… very smart… GRYFFINDOR!" it announced. Remus sighed too, very glad that nobody else could hear the hat, the Gryffindor table cheered and he sat down across from Sirius.

James was getting bored while he waited, but got anxious when Pettigrew, Peter was called. Peter looked stupidly around the Great Hall, and up at the ceiling. Remus had mentioned it in his nervous fit on the boat. He had muttered many facts that Peter didn't know how he remembered.

_Pretty_ he thought to himself, then the hat was dropped over his eyes and instantly a voice whispered in his ear.

"Hmm… Peter… I would say Hufflepuff, like your mother. Your father was in Ravenclaw, wasn't he? Hmm… fierce loyalty, a bit of stupidity. Hehe, sorry, hmm… All right, GRYFFINDOR!" it announced.

Finally, it was Potter, James' turn. He shuffled up to the stool and sat down. He glanced out at Sirius, sitting at the Gryffindor table with a huge grin, giving him a thumbs-up. James tried unsuccessfully to smile back, then was plunged into darkness. The sorting hat was on his head.

"Hmm…" a voice said in his ear, "James Potter… Courage, plenty of that, a stubborn streak. Loyalty to friends. Brains beyond anything… Well, I can't say that… Under normal circumstances, I would immediately say Gryffindor… unless there's some reason you would prefer to be somewhere else? And no, I don't give this chance to many, so if you think you should be somewhere else, tell me now. No? I didn't think so. GRYFFINDOR!" it boomed, the whole table applauded loudly, and James sat down next to Sirius, across from Peter.

Food appeared magically on their plates and while they stuffed themselves, James listened intently to a sixth year a few seats down.

"McGonagall was so mad! Who forgot to tell them? I'll bet it was Dung… How could he disregard tradition like that?" the older girl ranted on and on. James smiled then joined the conversation that Sirius was having mostly with himself, as nobody else was talking.

The rest of the feast passed like that. Then, before they knew it, Dumbledore was on his feet, dismissing them all. The first years followed their prefects to their respective houses. They reached a large painting of a large woman in a large pink dress. The prefect they were with told them all the password, and the portrait swung open.

James stared, there was a blazing fire in the fireplace, couches and chairs strewn about, tables were here and there too, it was wonderful, and James was surprised that it felt like home.

"Girls dormitories are on the left, boys to the right," the prefect said loudly. the four boys trooped upstairs and found the door that had a gold plaque that read _First Years. _They opened the door and stepped inside.

Their things had already been brought up. James' trunk was at the foot of the bed that he plopped down onto. The others did the same with their beds.

James looked at Sirius and said "Glad you're in Gryffindor, mate." Then immediately fell asleep.

Sirius was glad too, and his last thought before he fell asleep were something along the lines of 'Won't mother be happy?'

A/N- There you have it. I wrote this at least a year ago, but didn't have the patience to go through it. I could've sworn I've proofread it before, but…C'est la vie! Well…That's _my _life, anyhow.

Kisses and Cupcakes (to reviewers)

DANI


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize belongs to me. If it did, well…there would be a few changes in my life, wouldn't there?

The four of them woke early the next morning, each of them anxious about the coming lessons. They trooped down to the Great Hall and sat down at the Gryffindor table. Professor McGonagall was pacing up and down the table, handing out schedules to the Gryffindors.

James looked at it curiously then slumped back on the bench. "Double potions with the Slytherins, first thing in the morning… rotten luck,"

Sirius nodded slowly while Remus read the next one.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts after that…. paired up with the Hufflepuff…" he muttered "Then History of Magic."

"Well, that'll be fun…" Sirius said sarcastically. Even the first years knew that History of Magic was the dullest class. The professor was old and never changed his lesson plan. It was always lecture, but his voice droned on so that nobody paid attention.

Remus knew that History was important. After all, if you don't know the mistakes made in the past how will you be sure not to make them again?

"It might not be that bad, they probably just don't like History." Remus said hopefully.

Sirius looked at him in disdain, "Remus, the whole school said that!" he exclaimed.

James had been watching this ordeal from his seat at the table, "Let's just go to Potions," he said quickly, trying to avoid conflict.

Peter stood up immediately, and waited a moment while Remus sighed, then the four of them headed off for their first lesson. The castle was not only enormous but very confusing. There were hundreds of staircases, and most of them had some trick about them: vanishing stairs and the like.

"It's like the people who built this place were trying to confuse us…" James complained as they wandered the halls. They had asked directions of a ghost a few minutes earlier, but he had ignored them and walked away so now they were truly confused. "We should draw a map… once we figure out where anything is…" he added.

Sirius was gazing around the castle stupidly, looking down halls and up dangerously high staircases. "We should," he agreed. He and James thought along the same lines almost all the time.

Remus looked down a dark set of stairs and said "I think I heard somebody say that Potions was in the dungeons." James took his advice and turned down the stairs.

Peter was huffing and puffing already, complaining every once and awhile until one of them told him to shut up.

"This…is too…many…stairs!" he puffed.

The three boys that weren't out of breath glanced at him then shouted "SHUT UP!"

Their words echoed off the dank walls well enough for them to understand that they were coming up to the end of the corridor.

There, at the end of it lay a door, a not very clear door, but a door. Sirius pushed it open and muttered "Finally,"

He walked inside with three boys following him. They had reached their potions room.

It seemed that everything in this castle was made out of some stone of another, and the whole room was not an exception. There was even a stout stone statue of an older man in the front of the room.

Sirius walked up to it and poked its ear.

"Hey there!" the statue barked. Sirius jumped and stared, open mouthed. The statue had just spoken to him.

"Oh, um… Sorry, I-we were looking for the Potions room…" Sirius babbled stupidly.

James saw this whole thing and while finding it extremely funny, decided to go help Sirius out. "Hello," he said warmly, "Are you the professor?"

The statue laughed at James' attempt at manners, but answered "Oh, no. You've reached the Room of Expectation. You expected a dark, creepy Potions room and professor, and that's what you got!" it said cheerfully.

Remus looked at the thing knowingly, "Excuse me, sir? Could you tell us where the Potions room is?" he asked quietly, James didn't understand this kid. Why was he so bloody nervous?

The statue beamed, "Why, of course I can! You just go back up the stairs and three doors down on the left, there's some stairs in there, go down them, you'll end up in a tunnel, go down that, you'll end up here, then go out the door, and into the one you missed when you came here!" he said simply.

Sirius frowned, "Wait, we missed a door?" he asked.

Remus gave Sirius a 'duh' look, then thanked the statue and made his way to the door that was, indeed, right there in the open. Peter was completely clueless, and didn't know or care what had just happened.

"Congratulations to you all, for finding my class!" a voice boomed from the front of the room they had just entered, "I am professor Slughorn, Potions extraordinaire. Welcome!"

The class went as well as could be expected. It was pretty much an introduction day so they didn't really do anything. There were a number of dirty looks and smart remarks from the Slytherins, but Slughorn pretended not to notice. Then they were done and headed off for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

This class was much easier to find, and passed almost the same as their first, then they were done for lunch, where they talked in more detail about drawing their map.

Their History of Magic class was a dull as they anticipated, and only Remus could pay attention enough to take notes, which Sirius and James said they would copy later.

Peter was still sort of in a daze. He was just as clueless as ever, and the other three had to wonder if he was always that way.

James and Sirius grew ever closer, and were talking like brothers by the end of the month. Remus had grown ever sicker and said something about visiting his mother then left without another word. He was back later in the week, and looked awful.

Sirius took one look at him and exclaimed "Merlin, Remus. What the hell happened to you?"

There were long gashes down his neck, and James was certain there were more under his robe, which Remus was taking careful measures to make sure covered as much of his arms as it could.

Remus looked nervous and said "My… my mum… She's sick, I told you." then rushed off to catch up on his homework.

Remus was brilliant, so he had no troubles getting back on track after he visited his mother, which he did frequently, each time looking more terrible than when he had left.

Sirius and James were suspicious by October when Remus said he was going to see her again, over Halloween, but since they were all reasonably good friends, they didn't say anything about it, even to each other. Peter, on the other hand, being the clueless little boy he was, didn't suspect a thing, which Remus seemed grateful for.

Even with their suspicions floating in their minds, the Halloween feast was wonderful. There were pumpkins floating all over, mysterious candles, live bats… everything. James had always had a knack for finding trouble, and Sirius thought that trouble of any kind was brilliant. So they staged a pumpkin war, where each house enchanted the pumpkins to fly into other table's occupants.

"Watch it!" James yelled at Sirius, who ducked just in time to avoid being hit in the head with a giant vegetable. He kindly returned the favor to the Slytherin table who returned it back to him, James and Sirius were both sending pumpkins at the table as fast as they could, with huge grins plastered on both their faces. Peter was still trying to get his first pumpkin to go where he wanted it, and probably would've figured it out sooner if everyone who had joined the fight hadn't seen him and pelted him with flying orange pumpkins.

Dumbledore had a grin almost as large as Sirius' and rushed down into the middle of the fight. Everybody froze the instant they saw him. Everybody except for James and Sirius, who hadn't seen him as they were still laughing as hard as they ever had. They feebly sent pumpkins at each other, making desperate attempts to dodge them and most of the time failing miserably. Dumbledore stood watching them for more than a few moments, then sent a pumpkin at each of them, who had still not seen him, and were both hit in the head.

"Oof!" they exclaimed at the same time. They looked furiously towards their attacker, then saw professor Dumbledore.

They dropped their gaze to the floor and stashed their wands away, Dumbledore was trying very hard not to laugh, then a great orange blob went flying, and Peter shouted "I Got It!"

There was a collective gasp, while Dumbledore wiped the goo off his face. Peter was petrified, his eyes wide open. There was a moment of silence then Sirius snorted in his attempts not to laugh. When James heard that he couldn't hold it any more. He burst out laughing. He was doubled over when he heard someone else join him and Sirius, professor Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts was laughing.

This was the best cue the rest of the school got. They laughed and started the pumpkin war all over again.

Lily Evans stood near the doors to the Great Hall, she couldn't believe her eyes; a pumpkin war. They were hitting each other… with pumpkins. She marched right into the middle of it and found James and Sirius to tell them how stupid they were.

Orange blobs were flying past James and Sirius, who were loving every minute of it, when James realized that someone was standing behind him. He recognized her out of the corner of his eye as Lily Evans. She was sort of a know-it-all.

More accurately, she was a short, very pretty know-it-all, with straight long auburn hair and emerald green eyes. James didn't dare turn toward her, but was about to ask her what she wanted.

Lily couldn't believe he was ignoring her, and was about to ask him what he though he was doing, when a giant orange blob went soaring through the air in her direction.

"Watch it!" James said, he put his hand on her waist and gave her a little shove. He had finally turned around towards her, which was very dangerous what with the pumpkin bombs in the air. His hazel eyes were bright with excitement. He was very handsome, Lily decided. James pushed his hand through his messy black hair, making sure it didn't lay any flatter than it had to.

They were being pelted with pumpkins. James dodging even the ones he didn't see. He just knew. Lily following his lead, sometimes requiring prodding from James. Soon Lily was laughing and sending pumpkins back toward the others, James was slightly in shock. Lily Evans, having fun? But he decided to keep her having fun as best he could. He had never seen it happen before and wanted her to enjoy herself.

They were working as sort of a tag team, facing each other, making sure that any pumpkin senders got a vegetable flying back at them. James wondered why the pumpkins didn't hurt but Lily knew.

"They're enchanted to be just perfect. Exactly how you want a pumpkin. Not mushy, but-"

"OI!" Sirius yelled in the middle of her explanation, "Play nice, _Snivellus_,"

He sent the very last three pumpkins in the Great Hall hurtling towards his least-favorite Slytherin, then strode up to James.

He threw an arm around both he and Lily's shoulders and said "That's the most fun I've ever seen you have, Lils," Lily cringed slightly at the nickname.

"Yeah," James said, "What's up?" he had a huge grin slapped across his face and was on the verge of laughing like a mad-man.

Lily had a huge smile herself. "_Snivellus_? Where'd _that_ come from?" then she laughed her head off. She had a very nice laugh, James decided, not harsh but not giggly either.

Sirius was a little put off that this girl was laughing at him, but took it as a good thing. "I don't know, seems to fit him though, doesn't it?" he asked with an expression of pure innocence.

Then Lily stopped laughing and said "That's actually not very nice."

Her eyes were stern and her smile had dropped, unfortunately the two boys thought she was joking, and also unfortunately, they thought it was hilarious. It took them more than a few moments of her silence and their cackling to realize that she wasn't joining them. She had a hand on her hip and was staring them down.

"Come on, Lily-" Sirius said. James had stopped the instant he saw her, but Sirius was still suppressing the fountain of laughter.

"what?" she asked him sharply.

"Lily," James said quietly, "it was just a joke, you know we don't mean anything by it,"

Lily looked into his eyes, his perfect hazel eyes and sighed, "Well, I suppose he deserves it anyways." She said, defeated.

After that night, Lily had their friendship, and was very grateful for it. Her slightly know-it-all attitude towards school turned her away from many friends, but the boys did their best to make up for it. She was different around them. More relaxed. She knew she that didn't have to be on her guard. She was comfortable around them. They knew most of her secrets by the beginning of December, and she knew all of theirs. Well, almost all of them I should say. There was a secret the Remus kept and would keep from everyone, as long as he could.

A/N- I love the idea of a pumpkin war. Can't you just see Dumbledore jumping in on it?

Obviously, everybody has secrets that they don't tell anybody, but Remus was the only one who's secret that he kept was serious.

Love it or hate it, at least tell me why!

DANI


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize is mine. That is made painfully obvious by the fact that I am broke.

"Are any of you going home for Christmas?" Lily asked them. They were sprawled out in the boys dormitory. Lily lying on James' bed, her feet on his stomach. Remus was perched on the edge of James' bed too, and Sirius was… everywhere. His head was up by Lily's with one arm under her head, the other was hanging off the bed. His legs were under James' head and he felt very much like a pillow.

Remus looked thoughtful, "I guess I don't know. I could, and I'm sure my parents would prefer if I did, but there's no real reason for me to, is there?" The others shook their heads. Each one wanted to stay.

"My Dad said this would happen." James said with a hint of a smile, "The castle is amazing and you never want to leave, but you do get sort of… homesick."

Sirius glared at the ceiling, "I wouldn't go home if Hogwarts blew up." He said darkly.

The other three knew what happened at his house. His parents were major supporters of the Dark Arts, and the day after he was sorted into Gryffindor he had gotten a terrible howler. Everyone sat and stared at this poor boy, sitting in the middle of the Great Hall.

Everyone expected him to start crying or at least… care, but he didn't. He had quietly listened to it and stared at the red envelope for a second after it was done. Then he peeled a banana and continued eating his breakfast.

James had never heard anything like it. He was the only one at breakfast with Sirius. The others had heard about it and really didn't want Sirius to go home ever again.

Lily grinned slightly and said "All right then, let's all stay here! Let's have an adventure!"

The others looked at her like she had grown another head.

"What ever happened to the quiet Miss Evans who went to the Great Hall to yell at us about pumpkin fights?" Sirius asked mock shock.

James completely agreed, "I think we're a bad influence on her, mate," he said with a smile.

Lily's grin widened and she said "Let's go explore now! It's not like we're doing anything!"

Remus, being very studious, said "We've got transfiguration next, and 'next' is in 20 minutes,"

"Oh, come on Remmie, please?" Lily asked. She then gave him a look that melted professors hearts. Remus, not being used to this gaze, gave in.

"All right, but we can't be late," he warned.

"Well, come on!" James said, waiting for Lily to move her feet before jumping off his bed and almost bouncing with excitement while waiting for the others to untangle themselves.

"Where's Peter?" Lily asked with a tinge of concern. Really, she didn't like the boy very much, but she was a very kind girl, and didn't want him to be excluded.

Sirius was already beyond excited about their 'adventure' "Who cares?" he asked rudely, then bounded out of the dormitory and into the Common Room.

James gave Remus one last glance then jogged to keep up with Sirius. Lily laughed and followed them, pulling Remus along with her.

Lily remembered the day she had come to Hogwarts. She was Muggle-born, and her sister had spent an hour or so trying to convince her that the letter was a prank, but she wouldn't believe her. Lily knew there was something about her, and this explained it so perfectly.

Her older sister, Petunia had been a pain in the… you-know-where about the whole thing. After she had screamed about how much of a freak Lily was, she ran away from her and wouldn't speak to Lily. Wouldn't even look at her. Lily wouldn't go home any sooner than Sirius would because of her, and so was amazingly glad of her four friends.

The other girls in her dormitory were relatively jealous of her. She had three best friends, all of whom were very handsome. James with his hazel eyes and dark messy hair, Sirius with his brilliant blue eyes and black hair, Remus with his blonde hair and dark blue eyes. It was no wonder that the other girls were jealous. Really, though, Lily only thought one of them was handsome and perfect, and that was James. Sure, Remus was sweet and smart and Sirius was dangerous and good for a laugh but James was all that and more. He was dangerous and daring, (especially on a broomstick) smart in the classroom, (not that any of the teachers knew about it) caring and loyal to his friends, (Lily included), but he also had a way of making her feel as if she could tell him anything and he would make it all better… just like that.

"What's this painting doing here?" Lily asked, they had been wandering the schools corridors for a long time. Long enough that just after exploring this painting they would have to go to Transfiguration.

Sirius was studying it intently, "What? Fruit?" he asked scornfully.

James pushed in front of them and ran his hands over it. He felt the oranges, nothing happened, the grapes were a little cooler, the coconut was warm, the pear giggled. Lily jumped, pears… giggling? She knew that the paintings in this old castle moved, but this pear was squirming. Wsually inanimate objects stayed… inanimate.

"Woah…" James whispered, Sirius reached in front of him and tickled the pear. It squirmed and giggled then… turned into a door handle. Sirius glanced back at his friends. His eyes alive with excitement. Then he grasped the handle/pear, turned and pushed.

They were in a brilliantly bright room, which was very large and had counters running all the way around. On the right there were four tables in the exact places as the house tables in the Great Hall. Lily gasped and when James looked over at what she was staring at he laughed.

"Lily, it's a House Elf! We must be in the kitchens" he said when he could control his laughter.

She let out a breath and shot him a smile. "Hello, I'm Lily Evans," she said to the house elf that had startled her.

"So good to meet you, Miss!" the house elf beamed, "I is Iggy!"

"Nice to meet you, Iggy, I'm James Potter," he said, "These are our friends, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin," The two boys waved, then Remus' worried eyes grew slightly wider.

"We're going to be late," he said "It was nice to meet you Iggy. Maybe we'll come back later." then he practically dragged the others out of the kitchens, with Iggy still beaming, then down the hall and the long trek to transfiguration.

"Thank you for joining us." The stern voice of Professor McGonagall said, "Don't be late again. Now, to continue with my demonstration," she said, then melted into a Tabby cat."

Lily stared in amazement, "You're an Animagus!" she gasped. Sirius looked at Lily for a second. Then, seeing McGonagall's eyes narrow, he ushered Lily to a seat, closely followed by James and Remus.

The cat stared at them until they sat down, then Lily raised her hand. McGonagall sighed slightly, then turned back into her human self and asked "Yes, Miss Evans?"

"Professor, how long did it take you?" she asked excitedly. She had wanted to become an animagus ever since she first heard about them, which actually hadn't been too long ago.

"It was a long process, but I think my five years was less than that of your average wizard." McGonagall said with a slight chuckle. "Now, as Miss Evans understands, I am an animagus. In all honesty, if it had been my choice I would be something far more interesting, something like a… a tiger or something that flew, but your animagus form chooses you, much like a wand, and is a reflection of your inner self…"

The rest of the lesson went on much like the beginning, with McGonagall droning on about her animagus form, the dangers of foolish attempts, the importance of being registered.

You had to be registered with the Ministry of Magic, that way if you are a lion or something they could charge you with murder if you attacked, and you couldn't be hunted like the rest of the lions.

Lily and Remus were listening with rapt attention, but James and Sirius were hopeless. They were trying, really, but it was their nature to copy off of people like Remus and Lily, not pay attention themselves.

"Wouldn't it be exciting?" Lily asked at the end of the lesson, they were done for the day and Remus and Lily were still in a very animated discussion.

"Of course it would, but it would also be dangerous. I don't know if it would even be worth it. Think about all the things that could go wrong!" Remus asked nervously.

"Come on, live a little dangerously!" Lily exclaimed.

James and Sirius exchanged a glance. She had started acting more like… Well, like them, and they weren't sure if they liked it. Of course they preferred to see her happy, and having a dangerous Lily was much more fun for them, but they didn't like that she might not be acting like herself for a reason. They were worried that they might be accidentally pressuring her into acting more like them, which might not be what she actually wanted. So they decided to try to get her to study or something.

"Hey, Lilikins?" Sirius called, she sighed and tuned around.

"Yes, not-so-Sirius?" she asked with a little smile.

"Do you want to study for the History of Magic test?" he asked, ignoring the nickname.

"No." Lily said curtly. They had reached the painting of the Fat Lady. Lily said the password, and the four of them trooped inside.

Sirius wasn't amazingly satisfied with this response. The Lily they were used to would have jumped at the chance to study. Not that Sirius wanted to, but it really wasn't a good thing if she was changing. James, on the other hand, thought she was brilliant either way. Remus hadn't really noticed anything since Sirius didn't generally talk to Remus about serious things.

James gave Sirius a little smile and said "Lils, if you don't want to study with Sirius, that's fine. We all know how frustrating studying with hopeless cases is," This earned him a punch from Sirius, but James still thought it was funny.

Lily watched this, slightly amused, "Sirius, if you need help, I'm there. You know that," she promised, not wanting him to fail because of her.

"Um, thanks," Sirius said unhappily. He didn't really want to study, but now that she had offered, he could hardly turn her down.

Lily smiled knowingly, then flung herself into a couch. Sirius followed her and sat down on her stomach.

"Oof" she sighed. Then, James came over and plopped down on Lily's feet.

Lily was laughing hysterically, "James! Come on! I'm really ticklish!" she squirmed.

"I know," James said simply, then continued tickling her feet. Sirius joined in on her stomach and they called Remus over who joined in, too.

Suddenly Sirius switched over to James, which Lily would have gladly helped out with, but since Sirius was sitting on her stomach she couldn't reach.

"Remus!" she pleaded. He consented and soon everyone was tickling James instead.

Finally, they all gave out and flopped over, gasping for air.

"Yeah, I'm taking her to the Room of Requirement," they heard someone say quietly. Sirius turned around and looked to see who it was, Lily could already see and the other two decided it would be a little too suspicious if they all turned around. So, even though it was very difficult, they stayed where they were. A second year boy with red hair they had seen around the common room was standing next to a girl they didn't know.

"It's really there?" the girl whispered.

"Of course it is. You can't imagine something and not expect it to be somewhere in this school. You just walk past that bit of hall three times, thinking about what you need…" then the two of them walked on and out of the Common Room.

Sirius slowly turned back towards his friends, "Looks like we've got a room to find!" he said, his eyes lighting up. He and Lily wore an identical grin. That was never a good sign.

Remus looked tired, and he said, "We have all break to look for it. Let's just go to sleep."

Lily looked slightly abandoned, and slowly stood to walk to her dormitory, but Sirius grabbed her, picked her up quite easily and ran with her up the stairs to the boys dormitory.

He plopped her down on his bed and tucked her in, then flopped down in James' bed. James stole Remus' bed, and Remus stole Peter's, they hadn't seen him in awhile anyway.

"Night, Lils" Sirius called.

"Good night, James," she called.

"Night, Remmie" he said.

"Night, Sirius," Remus said quietly.

All of them fell asleep almost instantly, with dreams of the Room of Requirement drifting through their minds.

A/N- Where's Peter, I wonder? Haha. Great question. So, now they know about the Room of Requirement. I'm sorry for not writing Peter in much. I really just don't like him.

Love it or hate it, at least tell me why

TearsofBlack101


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Yet again, I inform you all of my empty pockets, and lack of JKR name. With that information, along with the fact that nothing that you recognize belongs to me, please do not sue me for posting something on a FANFICTION site. Where you post fanfiction. Which, in itself, makes it quite obvious that the writers do not get any money from writing. Nor do they get credit for the original characters etc. that are in the printed books. Now that I am through with my pretty little rant, though I'm sure that you just adored reading it, here's the story:

The rest of the time before winter break passed quickly. A few scuffles with the Slytherins, but for the most part it was quick. They didn't see much of Peter, but none of them really minded. He had started spending long stretches of time with the Slytherins, trying to figure out some way he could get into that house.

There was one mildly interesting thing that happened during those few weeks. Remus went to visit his ill mother again. Lily was slightly suspicious that he left once a month, but let it go, and decided to feel bad about his mother. Now, all three of his best friends were suspicious and not talking to each other about it.

"Come on, guys, let's go to the kitchens," Lily said excitedly. They had just finished their last lesson, and it seemed like it would be a very long time before dinner.

James laughed, "Lils, you eat as much as we do," he said.

Sirius was highly amused, and Remus laughed but Lily didn't take it too seriously.

"Well, I guess that just means you guys eat like girls!" she exclaimed brightly, then ran as fast as she could in the direction of the large fruit painting. She had to run because the three boys took off after her.

She got relatively far ahead of them, then they gained speed and caught up, Sirius swung her up onto his back and kept running, they got there quicker that way, was his reasoning, and she was very light.

Lily had always liked Sirius. She had admired his way of laughing off anything and she thought that he was very funny. Of course, this was a strictly platonic admiration, but Sirius had always liked her too. He had seen her briefly on the platform. He had seen the constant evil glare she had gotten from her sister, and had even heard the 'freak' thrown out at her. He had wanted to befriend her just then, and was very pleased when they both got into Gryffindor.

Lily reached over (being the tallest at the moment) and tickled the pear until it gave way and turned into a door handle. The four of them entered the kitchen and finally, Sirius let Lily down.

"Hello!" their House-Elf-friend, Iggy said, beaming up at them all, "Would you like some food?" she asked.

Lily smiled, "Oh yes, lots!" she exclaimed excitedly.

"What would you like?" Iggy asked, the huge grin still plastered on her face.

"Hmm… I want… pizza!" Lily cried, realizing that she hadn't had any since she came to this school. "Guys?"

James was the first to answer, "Cupcakes! Chocolate cupcakes!" Then Remus wanted apple pie and Sirius wanted French fries.

All of it came amazingly quickly, and Lily wondered if it had something to do with their House Elf magic. They thanked Iggy and all of the House Elves profusely, then trooped off to the boys dormitories. It wasn't after hours, but they didn't think they were supposed to take food from the kitchens.

Lily got there first and set the pizza in the middle of the floor. James got there next and put the cupcakes to the right of the pizza. Remus set the pie on the right of the pizza and Sirius wouldn't give up the French fries.

Remus grabbed a French fry from Sirius' grasp and ate it. "It's amazing!" he cried, then stole five more.

Sirius looked distraught, "Hey!" he yelled.

"You can have some of the pie," Remus tempted.

"Okay," Sirius said happily, then sat down on the floor to the left of James, Remus sat on his left and Lily sat on his left.

James munched happily for a few minutes, joining into the conversation here and there, but then an epiphany stroked. "We need to have a name." He said excitedly.

Sirius didn't bother to swallow before asking "Like what?" and splattering everyone with French fry bits, he swallowed thickly, "Hehe, sorry," he said quietly.

"I don't know, something like…" James thought out loud.

"Misfit Mischief Makers!" Lily exclaimed excitedly.

"We don't make much mischief," Sirius pointed out.

"Well, then we should start." Lily replied simply.

Remus had been thinking this whole time when he interjected, "I agree, but not with that name. We're not misfits… except with the Slytherins, and the name is so… five years old."

James nodded his head, "What about… The…" he said, drawing out the last word.

"The… what?" Sirius asked stupidly.

"Well, I don't know, you think of something! I came up with 'The'" he said, cherishing the word.

"The….Pixies?" Lily asked with a giggle. The boys cringed, then started throwing out possible names.

"-The Fearsome Foursome?"

"-The James' Jugglers?" he suggested, everyone stared at him for a moment, then continued.

"-The First Year Friends?"

"-The Tornado Thrashers?"

"-The Mischievous-ers?"

"-The Marauders?" Lily gasped, the four of them repeated it together, "the Marauders…"

"I love it!" James said happily.

"I think that's the best one." Remus said, happy that they weren't the pixies.

Sirius was just staring into space, then he took out his wand and wrote '_The Marauders'_ in the air. It shimmered there for a minute, and the four friends- the four Marauders, smiled at it. They were going to have fun with this one.

Lily had a demonic smile on her face, "When do we start making mischief?" she asked, clearly looking forward to that part the most.

James laughed, "After we finish your pizza?" he suggested. Sirius crammed the last of the fries down his throat, and Remus finished the only piece of pie he got while James and Lily tore the pizza apart.

"Now," Lily said the instant they were finished, "I think we ought to find out the other houses' passwords. We'll follow one until they get to wherever their Common Room is, get the password and meet up back here. Sirius, you get Ravenclaw, Remus, Hufflepuff, and James gets Slytherin!" she exclaimed, then her face fell slightly, "Oh." She said quietly. The three boys were already on their way out the door, and none of them saw her disappointed expression.

"Oh yeah," Sirius said thoughtfully, then he swooped over and picked up Lily, "You're coming with me. You know those Ravenclaws, they get kind of scary!"

Lily giggled and said "All right, but you're going to get very tired carrying me all the way,"

Sirius shook his head, "Nu-uh, you're really light. I'm amazed all that food fits in you!" he exclaimed.

"Well, it might be a little tough to spy on people if I can't walk." she replied with a grin. Sirius sighed and let her down, then they made their way to the Great Hall, from which they decided it would be best to catch a Ravenclaw.

They didn't have to wait long. Soon George Anderson left the Great Hall, and Lily and Sirius were close on his tail. They followed him past the marble staircase the Gryffindors usually took, and down a dark corridor. They crept down the hallway after George until he stopped abruptly at a small stone statue of a raven.

He pulled the third talon/claw, said "_Litenso" _Then, the raven flew away, revealing a door handle. George pushed it open. Lily mentally recorded the whole thing, then they went back to the boys dormitory to wait for the others.

They heard a not-so-nice comment by a first year girl about girls in boys dormitories and what they were _really_ doing in there. Sirius glared at her, but Lily just walked past her, trying not to pay attention.

"Did you even hear that?" Sirius exclaimed angrily when they got to his dormitory.

"Of course I did! that's all I hear! But…" Lily began, then her face fell and she looked as if she was about to cry, "I've never had such good friends and…" she sniffed, "I wouldn't give you up if I had to deal with them the rest of my life!" she sank down onto Peters bed. That one was hers whenever she went up there, which was almost always, and when Peter wasn't there, which _was_ always.

Sirius sat next to her and put an arm around her. "Lily, I… I didn't know," he said quietly, Lily hugged him back and they sat there for a few minutes, then Lily sat up, took a deep breath and gave him a little smile.

"You see? You guys are perfect…" she said quietly. Sirius smiled at her, then the other two Marauders walked in.

They soon learned that Slytherin common room was a dark wall near the dungeons, and the password was _dragon leg_, that Hufflepuff was just outside the trophy room, and the password was _Helga Hurry _they already knew the Gryffindor password, so they decided that they would just have to start their mischief and general Marauding the next day. The first day of winter break.

Lily elected to sleep in the girls dormitories that night. She wanted to be there at least some of the time, and at least make a very small effort to make friends with her dorm-mates as well as her fellow Marauder.

"Hey, girls," she said upon entrance.

"Look, it walks alone," one of the girls said cruelly.

"Why are you here? Get dumped?" another girl asked snottily.

Lily was shocked that people could be so mean all the time, but wouldn't give them the satisfaction of her getting upset, so she changed into a cami and a pair of boxers and climbed into bed.

"Why is she even here?" she heard one of the girls say.

"She doesn't belong in Gryffindor. Is Slytherin open for sluts too?" She heard another say.

This one got to her, and a tiny tear leaked from her eye. After about a half an hour the other girls fell asleep, and the instant that Lily heard their breathing even out, and somebody start snoring, she climbed out the window. She performed a rather difficult bit of acrobatics, (she had been in gymnastics since she could walk) and climbed onto the roof.

She sat down on the roof, as close to the edge as she dared, huddled her knees to her chest and cried. She cried for the girls in there, she cried for her sister, she cried for her helplessness in both cases, and when she was all cried out she straightened herself, took a deep breath and climbed back into the window.

"Did you guys hear that last night?" James asked Remus and Sirius. Last night, around eleven, he had heard somebody crying.

"Uh, yeah," Sirius said. He knew who it was, but he was the only one in the group who had ever heard Lily cry, so he was the only one who knew that it was her.

They were standing in the Common Room, waiting for Lily to come downstairs. "What was it?" James asked stupidly, Remus knew that someone had been crying, it was only James who was completely clueless.

Sirius considered telling James that it had been Lily, but decided to let him figure it out and focus on where she was and how she'd gotten there.

"Don't say anything to Lily, all right? Don't scare her." He said, not wanting her to be embarrassed.

"Oh," James said, "You're right."

Sirius could've sworn he heard Remus sigh in relief, but he didn't think much of it because just then his stomach growled very, very loudly. On cue, Lily stepped into the common room0

She had been disappearing for hours at a time, whenever she could get away with it, running off to the Hogs Head Pub, which was a not so pleasant bar in Hogsmead. Not that anybody knew where she went, or even _that _she went. Not even the boys.

All three of them were facing the stairs and so didn't see her sneak in the painting. She snuck up between Sirius and James, and whispered, "What are we waiting for?"

All three boys jumped and Sirius gasped. They turned to see Lily laughing, and Remus with a large smile. James picked her up and started tickling her. Sirius joined in, to get back at her for scaring them, but Remus just stood there, smiling at all three of them, thanking his lucky stars that he had such great friends.

"Remus!" Lily exclaimed, pleading for help.

He stepped up and pulled her out of the heap of people, set her straight then suggested that they go have breakfast. This was all that anyone needed. They all ate like animals.

They all raced down the to the Great Hall and plopped down at Gryffindor table, Lily was the first to notice.

"Um… guys? We're the only ones here…" she said nervously.

The three boys looked around and they were, indeed, alone, Sirius smiled, "Good," he said "We don't have to worry about any Slytherins now." They all smiled bravely. This was the emptiest they had ever seen the place, and it was a little weird.

"Where were you this morning?" James asked, suddenly remembering that she hadn't been where they thought she would be.

"Oh… I was just… exploring…." Lily replied nervously. She had indeed been exploring, only half lying, she had been exploring Hogsmead around one or two a.m., but she had gotten confused coming back. If she hadn't gotten lost, she would've been back before anybody noticed she was gone.

"Exploring?" Sirius asked through a mouth full of toast, "Where?"

Lily looked slightly frightened, "just… around," she said quietly. She had happened upon an acromantula, actually, on her way back to the school, and had only just managed to get away. She didn't want to admit to the boys that a spider had almost killed her, then she would seem weak. It was bad enough that she had already cried in front of Sirius, and didn't particularly want to seem any more like a girl than she had to.

James was reminded of the crying he had heard the night before, and it dawned on him. Lily. "Um, how did it go last night?" he asked nervously.

Sirius looked like he could've killed him. Why would you remind her of that? Sirius understood that James had a crush on Lily, and that it made him say very stupid things sometimes, but really, that wasn't fair.

Lily looked down at the orange in her hand. "It was… all right," she said quietly. Sirius was glaring at James. Oh no, she thought, he knows.

"Oh good because… because I was worried about you," James said quickly. Lily looked up. It was sweet of him to be worried, but that just proved her point that they thought she was weaker than them.

"Oh… well, I was fine." She lied. The three boys exchanged glances. Now they all knew she was lying, but why? That, they didn't know.

Remus cleared his throat, "So… where are we exploring today?" he asked loudly, hoping that James would take the hint and change the subject.

Unfortunately, James was never the kind that could pick up on these things, so he asked Lily, "Where did you explore this morning? You must've been gone a long time,"

Sirius almost groaned, but just as he was about to tell James to shut up, Lily replied. "Actually, I did leave early, it wouldn't have taken me so long but I met an acromantula." She didn't care if it made her sound weak. He wanted to know so bad? She'd tell him.

Remus sputtered, James stared and Sirius choked out "An acromantula??? Lily! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Honestly. You think I've died since we started talking?" Lily snapped.

Sirius was half furious, and half concerned, "Lils, why didn't you tell us?" he sputtered.

"I didn't…." Lily began quietly, "I didn't want you to think I'm weak. What with yesterday… and last night… I don't know, I just…" then she realized that she had just told them that she had been crying last night. She froze and her eyes widened. Remus put his arm around her and so did Sirius, James was still staring stupidly.

Sirius almost tried to joke to make it less stuffy and uncomfortable, but only managed to say quietly and gently, "How did you get onto the roof?"

Lily looked at him for a moment then smiled hugely and started laughing. "That's what you want to know? It's not that hard, you just climb out the window and-"

"Out the window? Lils, it's got to be a hundred feet up!" Sirius explained.

Lily raised an eyebrow, "So? You just climb out the window and there's a pretty useful bit of stone that makes an excellent ladder. You just sort of… climb up…? My window's not that far from the roof anyways." She said quickly.

James clapped a few times, then Sirius and Remus joined him and soon there was a round of applause going. Sirius shouted a few catcalls and Lily took a bow. She giggled slightly, which made Sirius feel better. He didn't like his favorite girl to be upset.

"Come on!" Lily said excitedly. The boys stood and followed her out the Great Hall and up to where she thought the Room of Requirement was. "It should be right around here. What do you want it to turn into?" she asked quickly.

"Food!" Sirius said happily.

"Sirius, we just ate!" Lily exclaimed.

"What about ideas for pranking the Slytherins?" James suggested.

"a Marauders club house…" Remus thought out loud.

Lily liked the sound of that. She started pacing, with the boys behind her, muttering "a Marauders clubhouse, supplies, ideas, books, a Marauders clubhouse," then Sirius stopped and grabbed her arm. There in front of him was a golden door where wall had been not two minutes before.

James glanced back at them, then pushed the door open and stepped inside.

A/N- Haha! Tiny little cliffie.

This chapter needs a tiny bit of explanation. Basically, Lily's sneaking around without her buddies knowing about it. They don't know where, but it's giving her a better picture of the school, and Hogsmead. Which, if you'll remember, only third years and up can go to. So…Lily Evans is breaking school rules!

Oh, and I borrowed the roof thing from…someone. If it looks similar to your idea, and it's the story that I remember reading it in, I'll be glad to credit you.

Love it or hate it, at least tell me why.

DANI


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize belongs to me.

Recap:

There in front of him was a golden door where wall had been not two minutes before.

James glanced back at them, then pushed the door open and stepped inside.

"What did you guys want?" Lily asked Remus, Sirius and James. It was exactly what she wanted, and so much more. Sirius said that he wanted a list of the passwords for the other houses and a book with a few passageways to get there faster. Remus said that he wanted the clubhouse to be somewhere that nobody but a Marauder could get in, and James had wanted pranking props.

Lily rushed over to the book with the passageways, sat down on the floor and began reading. Remus strode to a pedestal in the middle of the room, that was titled _Marauders _and sure enough, all of their names were written on it, then he walked over to where James was studying the props all over a giant wall. Dung bombs, rubber chickens, fake wands, books upon books filled with exotic spells. It was great. Sirius, having nothing to do, sat down next to Lily, set her down on his lap and started reading over her shoulder.

She had looked up slightly when she had been moved, but mostly the book she was reading was too fascinating to be bothered. It was building plans for the school. She was trying very hard to commit it to memory, though she knew that she could just bring it along with her.

Sirius was reading very closely along with her, trying to keep up. They learned a lot of new places that day. James took a large quantity of dung bombs and Remus took two books of spells and Lily took the book with the passages.

They trooped up to their dormitory. Lily spent so much time there it was more hers than Peters, and the girls dormitory certainly wasn't pleasant. They had spent so much time in the Room of Requirement that it was almost time for dinner. Christmas was coming.

James led the way to the Great Hall after they had stashed their things in their trunks. The boys had lugged Lily's trunk into their dormitory, they didn't want her to go back to the girls dormitory, but she said she wouldn't give the girls the satisfaction of chasing her away, and would move back the day before break was over.

The Great Hall glistened with holly and floating candles that never burned down. There were Christmas wreaths on the doors and Professor Dumbledore had taken away the house tables. The Professors table was in the middle of the Great Hall, and already a few students were nervously seated.

Sirius bounded over to the table and flopped down in a chair. Lily sat next to him, James sat across from her and Remus sat across from Sirius. "Um…" Lily said, in awe of her surroundings.

"I know!" Sirius whispered, he wouldn't let anybody know it, but he could really appreciate the decorations in this place. The Marauders, of course, knew that anyways.

Suddenly, the food appeared in front of them, and the Marauders dug in. Lily wondered vaguely where Professor Dumbledore was, and right on cue he strode in with a huge grin on his face. He sat down at the only open space, next to Lily.

"Happy Christmas!" he boomed, the others feebly returned the greeting and Sirius shouted it back. "Ah, Miss Evans, cracker?" he offered.

"Um, what?" she asked.

The food had recently disappeared, replaced by plates full of wizards crackers, which Dumbledore insisted upon having every Christmas and really every occasion that crackers were permitted. He gestured to the plate in front of them and Lily smiled faintly.

"Sure," she said. They both took an end and pulled. There was a loud crack and a puff of orange smoke, revealing a wizards chess set and something squirmy and gushy that nobody wanted to touch.

"Ah well," Dumbledore said. But Lily was amazed with the chess set. She had played chess every once in awhile back home (not that she was any good), but not only was that months ago, but this set moved and spoke and was truly, very cool. She was still marveling when they got back to the Common Room. They were all standing as close to the fire as they could, which resulted in a short fight over who got to be closest. In the end, Lily and Remus won because they were both shortest and skinniest.

"I can show you… sometime," James offered nervously, when he saw how excited it made her.

"Really?" Lily asked, the set still amazing her. She was so happy she threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek.

James blushed, "Uh, sure," he stuttered.

Sirius sniggered and James glared at him while Lily huddled a bit closer to the fire, almost sitting in the small window. Actually, this was an experiment, to see if James would huddle closer to her… It worked, which pleased her immensely.

Remus was the only one who realized what time it was. "It's two in the morning… Shouldn't we go to sleep?" he asked.

"No," Lily replied, but the giant yawn that went with her answer gave her away, and they agreed to go to bed. Lily was growing accustomed to sleeping in the boys dormitory, and would be quite sad when she had to leave at the end of break.

She had already considered her options on this and decided that if the other girls already thought that she was spending too much time with them she probably shouldn't make them angrier by staying there. On the other hand they weren't nice and she didn't really care what they thought.

Her selling point for moving back into the girls dormitory was that they were separated for a reason, and if a teacher happened upon her sleeping regularly in the wrong dormitory, she was sure that that outcome wouldn't be pleasant.

Lily was almost asleep in her/Peters bed when she heard a tapping on the window. It was an owl. She walked over to it, opened the window and let it inside. It perched on her shoulder, so she guessed that its letter was for her. She untied the letter from the owl and thanked it, then it flew back out the window. She looked at the letter for a minute then gasped. It was from her older sister, Petunia.

_Lily, we were informed that this was your way of delivering letters. It's really a burden, so don't expect it to happen again. Look, I thought you might want to know that last week I got married to Vernon Dursley, You've met him a few times, and am now Mrs. Petunia Dursley. I'm sure you're very happy for me. I got engaged in September. The point is that I won't be seeing you for a long time. Mum and Dad wanted me to send a letter to tell you. But don't worry, this letter doesn't mean anything in relation to how I feel towards you, I still hate you and think you're an abnormal freak._

_Happy Christmas,_

_Petunia Dursley _

Lily clutched the letter in her hands until she couldn't bear it any longer. Then, she fled to the window and climbed onto the roof. She heard the boys calling her as she climbed, but she just wanted to get out of there. She sat in the same place she had before, and while she didn't cry, a lump formed in her throat, and she shivered. Whether that had to do with the letter, that she was wearing Sirius' boxers and a tank top in December, or if it was a combination, she didn't care.

Before long Sirius, James and Remus climbed out after her. None of them managed it as quickly or as easily as Lily had, but they managed. Slowly and sluggishly, they managed. Sirius stood in front of her with James on his left and Remus on his right. They were looking at her with concern.

"Lils?" Sirius ventured, not sure if she was going to cry. Lily shuddered and sniffed a few times, then Sirius knelt next to her and wrapped her up in his arms. James and Remus joined the group hug and they stayed there for almost half an hour, not even knowing what had happened.

At that moment Lily was so grateful for her new best friends, and didn't know what she'd do without them. Eventually she stopped sniffing, but she was shivering worse than ever. James and Remus stepped back but Sirius kept her in his arms. He shifted so that he was sitting next to her. The four of them were sitting in a circle, Petunias letter still clamped in Lily's iron grasp.

Sirius held her hand for a moment then gently released the letter and read it. When he emerged, his eyes were alight with fury. The letter was getting even more wrinkled as he clenched it in his fist. James retrieved the letter and he and Remus read it. Then, both looked at Lily in concern. Only Sirius looked like he was going to hurt someone.

"That cow!" he exclaimed.

Under normal circumstances Lily would have thought it extremely funny, but just now she was too upset to laugh. He glared at the sky for a long time, with Lily on his right, and Remus and James staring around helplessly. Then his gaze softened.

"Come on, let's get you inside. You must be freezing. Are those my-…." He said quietly, then slowly he grinned and Lily smiled back sheepishly. Lily didn't really want to go back inside, but allowed herself to be prodded toward the side, where they let her flip over the edge of the castle and land in the window. A few seconds later the boys clonked in after her, none nearly as gracefully as she had been.

"Lils?" Sirius said when he entered. Lily looked up, "Are you okay?" he asked so gently that Lily thought she might cry again, but she nodded slowly, then Sirius picked her up and set her in his bed. He climbed in after her, and James and Remus settled in with them. She wasn't having a good time and that bothered the boys beyond all else.

It surprised them all sometimes how well they knew each other, and how well they communicated for eleven year olds. Lily drifted off to sleep that night, perfectly comfortable, and perfectly safe-feeling, nestled in the blankets with her three best friends.

"Happy Christmas!!" Lily squealed the instant she woke up. There was a huge pile of presents in the middle of their dormitory. None of them were sorted, they were just dropped in the middle.

When she squealed, Sirius, who was closest to her, woke with a start. He looked around sleepily, "Wazzgoinon?" he muttered.

"Presents!" Lily exclaimed, "Come on, James, Remmie, wake up!" she shook them, trying to make them wake, but they just wouldn't.

Finally, Sirius was able to make them wake up, by jumping on the bed and making it move enough to shake them awake. Neither of them were particularly happy about being woken up, but all was forgiven when they saw the mound of presents.

The four Marauders pounced on the presents. It was soon made clear the James had the most, closely followed by Remus, and lagging not too far behind, was Sirius. There was not a single one for Lily.

She looked around the room, a little lost. She didn't understand. Certainly, her parents would have sent her something, not that she expected anything from Petunia, and surely her best friends would have given her something, but no. There was nothing there.

Sirius looked worried when he realized that there wasn't anything for Lily, he soon began searching the room for her gifts, muttering "I put yours here, but those guys' are in the pile, and they were here too…. Where'd they go?" Remus and James helped. They searched the room and successfully turned it upside down, then Remus looked like he had had an epiphany.

"The girls dormitory." He said quietly, then he repeated it louder, "They're probably in the girls dormitory. Maybe the House Elves moved the presents. Go look, Lily."

She jumped up when she heard that, and James and Sirius wanted to go too, but were soon stopped when the staircase melted into a slide and they fell down. Lily, who had gone first, landed on both of them.

"Um, no." Remus said, staring down at his idiot friends, "Don't you remember? The stairs don't let boys up."

The other boys sent him a 'duh' look, then they stepped back and the stairs snapped back into… stairs. Lilly glanced at the apologetically, then she trooped upstairs to search for presents.

Lily was not disappointed. When she came back down her arms were full of packages from everyone. There was even a small one from Petunia and Vernon Dursley, though she knew it was just a chance for them to show off their new marriage. There were also presents from each of the boys. She grinned at them, then they all ran back upstairs and proceeded opening all the presents that they had sorted through earlier.

James got a new broomstick and servicing kit, Gryffindor scarf and a whole skew of candy. Remus got about twelve boxes of chocolate, which seemed abnormal to everyone but him, and also a few books a new quill and some neat color-changing ink. Sirius didn't get anything from his parents. He suspected they were still angry that he was in Gryffindor, and probably also that he hadn't come home for break so that they could yell at him.

Fortunately Lily had anticipated this and had made up for it by buying him lots of candy, and a bottle of ink labeled 'Seriously Black'. The other boys had gotten him a homework planner and a few boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

Lily had gotten some stationary from her sister, large quantities of muggle chocolate from her parents, a large amount of Chocolate Frogs from Remus, a necklace with a lily charm from James, a whole bunch of candy and a book on lycanthropy from Sirius, which had made Remus' eyes widen.

"Aww, thanks guys," Lily said, the she hugged each one of them. They pigged out that morning on their new candy and didn't find it necessary to go to the Great Hall for breakfast or lunch. They just hung out in the dormitory until one or two in the afternoon, then James realized that he hadn't had a snowball fight in ages, so they all ran down to the lake and pelted each other.

James decided that Lily looked pretty no matter what she was wearing. She was happily chucking snow at him and his friends, in a pair of ripped jeans and a light brown jacket. Her auburn hair tumbled down around her and her emerald green eyes sparkled with excitement.

"Better stop staring, mate, or she'll figure you out," Sirius told James quietly, then threw a snowball in Lily's direction. James nodded, then tackled Remus, pushing his head in the snow.

Lily was laughing hysterically, which made it very difficult to keep throwing, Sirius seized this opportunity to pelt her repeatedly. He must have gotten ten in before she hit him back. Remus resurfaced from the snow, then rolled over James and shoved snow in his mouth.

Sirius saw this, and decided it looked like fun so soon Lily, Sirius and Remus were burying James in the freezing snow. After a bit, Lily walked a bit away from them and started building a snowman. The boys decided that this looked like fun too, so they set about making the best snowman in the world.

He was very handsome, with stones for eyes and a stick for a nose. Sirius gave up his scarf for the effort, and James surrendered his sopping mittens, after he rescued himself from the snow mound. Finally, Remus took out his wand and made the snowman huge, which highly amused Lily.

Sirius looked out at the frozen lake and was seized by inspiration. He shuffled out a bit and cleared a space. Lily joined him and wished that she had brought her ice skates, Sirius suggested that she send for them, so they ran to the owlery to beg their parents to send their skates. An hour or so later, they trooped back out to the lake. It wouldn't be too long before dark now, so they only had a few hours to spend gliding around the lake. Sirius was surprisingly graceful, James was terrible and Remus was worse, but Lily was very good. Astonishingly good. She remembered skating on the lake by her house, she hadn't forgotten anything.

Lily instructed Sirius and before long they were gliding about together, jumping and twirling here and there. It was very beautiful, and the other two boys sat down to watch. They moved together with the grace that only the very best of friends had. They didn't need to say anything, they just knew what the other was thinking. Jump here, Lily thought, I love spinning, thought Sirius. It was very beautiful, and both boys were extremely jealous. The sun set on their right and the Marauder sadly shuffled inside.

A few days later held Sirius' birthday, December 27. The Marauders had great fun running about the castle and causing as much trouble for Filch, the caretaker, as they could. He wasn't pleasant to any of them, and had even threatened to hang Lily up by her toes in his creepy dungeon. This was enough to anger them all and mess up the castle in their attempts to irritate him.

In the evening James and Remus stole away to the kitchens to retrieve the large cake and French fries they had ask for earlier. Lily took Sirius up to the roof to looks out at the lake while they did, so he didn't suspect anything. When suddenly James levitated the fries out the window, Lily had to restrain Sirius from jumping after them, laughing too hard to explain. Then, Remus levitated the cake out the window, sticking his head out after it he was able to guide it to the roof, then climb out after it.

They sang him Happy Birthday and pigged out on the large cake that was far too much for four people, and the French fries which they let Sirius consume the most of. They had all gone out a secret passageway to Hogsmead and bought him candy, too. They now knew as many secrets of the castle as the fourth years and were getting slightly big headed for it. The secrets became as dear to them as each other, as it helped them escape Filch all that day.

Winter break passed quickly after that. The four best friends grew ever closer as they spent every day together. They decided to 'decorate' the other houses Common Rooms, and they did, the last night of break. Slytherin was plastered with red and gold (the Gryffindor colors) Ravenclaw was pink and Hufflepuff was everything. They didn't bother to do anything to Gryffindor Common Room, but they camped out there that night, all sprawled out on the couches.

They woke early the next morning, well aware that they had lessons that day. Remus had insisted that they wake up half on time, though he didn't badger Sirius too badly when he wouldn't wake. Finally, Lily had to dump water on him to make him wake up. He jumped up on guard, but seeing the bucket Lily held, he grinned and bid them good morning.

They ate breakfast as quickly as they could, then set off for their first lesson, eager to try out their new secret passageways. They were careful of trick stairs and moved tapestries, revealing secret doors. There were whole corridors that they had never seen before. In the end, even with a bit of exploring, they got to their first lesson far quicker than they ever would have without that book from the Room of Requirement, and they were very happy for it.

A/N- I'm sorry. I just really love Christmas. And Sirius is my favorite, so it's only right that I dragged out vacation a little bit, don't you think? I rather do.

Come on, what's the big deal about telling me why you hate my writing? Although, if you're still reading it, that's a little hypocritical, I think.

Kisses and Cupcakes,

DANI


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize belongs to me…Still

Now that everyone was back in the castle, and the Marauders realized how great an empty Common Room was, they couldn't wait for next Christmas where they could roam the castle alone again.

On Valentines day, Lily received a singing card from James, but much to his dismay didn't think much of it. The rest of the year went much like that. With James making unsuccessful attempts to get Lily to notice him as more than a friend and Lily convinced that she was more like a little sister to him than anything. Sirius loved her dearly as a friend, but had no idea that she liked James, or he would have gotten the two together even then.

"I'm going to be so miserable tomorrow," Lily moaned. They were in their customary positions on Lily's bed (they still considered it that even though she slept officially in the girls dormitory).

Tomorrow they were going home, and Lily would be a temporary only child in her home. The boys were no better off than her. James would be going home to his perfect loving family, but would be away from his friends. Remus would be returning to his healer father and 'ill' mother. Sirius would be returning to Black Manor, which was no picnic either. he had made it well-known that he was going to be miserable and expected owls daily.

"I know, but at least your sister won't be there," Remus reminded her, this actually helped a lot, and she cheered up considerably until she remembered that she couldn't even sneak magic like the others, who had someone magical in their families. The Ministry of Magic usually couldn't figure one person's bit of magic from another, so the boys could sneak some in somewhere in the summer.

There was a tapping on the glass window, and James, being the closest, strode over to let it in. It landed on Lily's head and refused to move. Finally, Sirius was able to pull the thing out, taking a considerable amount of Lily's hair with her.

"Ouch, Sirius! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow" she exclaimed as he yanked. He looked at the letter in the owls grasp and then shoved it at Lily. "What about it?" she snapped, still a little sore about having her hair yanked at. She scanned it quickly. "Oh," she whispered, then sat back on the bed and strongly considered fleeing to the schools roof.

James had been staring at the letter like it would explode, and asked "Well?" impatiently.

"Um," Lily attempted unsuccessfully, "My... My mum and dad are going on vacation… I'll be staying with Petunia this summer." The reaction was something to be expected. Sirius hugged her very tightly, Remus sighed and James looked horrified.

"But you can't!" he exclaimed, "How… You can't!"

Lily laughed a little, "What am I going to do about it, James? They've got it all sorted out…"

"Well… Fix what they've sorted out. They haven't sorted it right!" James cried, "You can't stay with her!"

"Where would I go?" Lily asked rhetorically.

Sirius frowned, "Well, you could come with me if you don't mind being screamed at about being a… a 'mud-blood', as they would call you, not that I would." he said quickly.

Remus didn't say anything, but his expression was enough to crush all hope.

"I've got it!" James yelled, Sirius had been staring at him poitntedly for about ten seconds, and he'd finally taken the hint. "You can come with me!"

Lily smiled, "Really?" she asked, very excitedly. There was no fate worse than spending time with her sister and her walrus-husband.

"Of course you can! It'll be great!" James said with enthusiasm.

"James," Sirius hissed, "Parents"

"Oh," James said quietly, then he ran out of the room.

Sirius grinned at Lily, "Looks like you won't have to go there after all. James is the most spoiled kid I've ever met. His parents can't say 'no' to him,"

Lily beamed back at him, then muttered something about the view, stretched briefly and swung out the window.

"That girl," Sirius muttered. He told Remus, who didn't like heights, that he should tell James where they went, then followed Lily out the window.

He found her standing up there, a hand on her hip, staring vacantly out at the lake. There was a rumor going around that there was a giant squid in the depths, and Sirius wasn't sure if he believed it, but ever since meeting that acromantula, Lily had stopped doubting anything in this school.

"Lils?" he asked uncertainly, she snapped her attention to him and looked miserable. "Lils, it's going to get better. You're not going to have to go home to that cow," he told her. He had started referring to Petunia as 'that cow' ever since her first letter, it had just sort of stuck.

"That's not it," Lily said quietly, Sirius stepped closer to hear her, "God, it's this place! It's so perfect and… I don't think I'll ever have such great friends in such a perfect place again and… and…"

"I know," Sirius said quietly, "I know exactly how you feel. I have to go back to my house but I'm not going back to my home. This is my home. Hogwarts is my home. It's where I belong, and we'll all be here for you next term. Hogwarts isn't going anywhere." Under normal circumstances he would have laughed, but Lily looked so miserable. Sirius grabbed her in a hug and she held on for dear life.

"I always miss these moment," James said from the edge. Sirius let go of Lily and looked at James stupidly. "I always get here too late… anyway, Lilikins, my parents say it's okay, so I guess you can just go there tomorrow." Lily smiled bravely. She had never met James' family and was very nervous, but from what she'd heard they were perfect.

The day slipped into evening, and James levitated Lily's things into the boys dormitory. She would sleep there that night whether she liked it or not. They all slept curled up on Lily's bed, and woke early the next morning very stiff and very sad to be leaving, but excited that they had all passed finals. Their scores were posted in the Common Room.

They were all pleased to see that Peter had failed. There was a tiny argument over who was the best, as Remus and Lily were tied for first place, closely followed with a James/Sirius tie. Remus and Lily were glad to share first place, as even if one of them was before the other, the other would only be in second so it didn't really matter, but for James and Sirius one of them would be in fourth, and that just wasn't okay.

After that they all had to rush for the horseless carriages that would take the to the Hogwarts Express. They found a compartment on the train and stumbled inside, with everyone trying to get in first. Lily was still sleepy, but the boys were wide awake with excitement. They sat in the compartment, with Lily and James on one seat, Remus and Sirius on the other.

Sirius pulled out a deck of exploding snap cards, which was a lot like muggle card house building, except that periodically the cards exploded. They played until Lily thought she would fall over asleep, then Remus found a wizard chess board in his trunk and he challenged Sirius while Lily put her head in James' lap and went to sleep.

The boys bought her a box of Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans and some Chocolate Frogs when the trolley lady came by, for when she woke up, while pigging out on everything themselves.

Out of nowhere James' stomach growled very, very loudly.

Everyone in the compartment looked at him not very happily for waking up Lily, but they greeted her as cheerily as ever. James thought she looked amazing, especially for having just woken up. That seemed to suit her as well as everything else did, which was exceptionally well.

Long before they would've liked, the train slowed to a stop in the station. They stepped out and lugged their trunks behind them. Lily looked at each of them, then threw her arms about all of them at once. They hugged her back warmly, then said goodbye and set off to find their parents, or in Lily's case, James' parents.

"Mum, Dad!" James exclaimed when he saw the couple. Sirius was right, Lily thought, they were perfect. James was immediately grabbed onto by a short, round woman with long dark hair and a taller man with glasses, brown hair and hazel eyes. James was his fathers mirror image, with messy hair that belonged to his mother.

"Is this our houseguest?" James' mom/Marium asked warmly.

"Oh, er, yeah. This is Lily," James introduced awkwardly. Marium gave her a hug and Gregory/James' dad shook her hand. Gregory levitated both trunks onto a trolley, then with a wink pushed it through the barrier. They weren't allowed to use magic in front of the muggles.

Lily, James and Marium followed him outside to an antique car that nobody in their family really drove, the truth was that it drove itself. The car was enchanted to take them wherever the driver asked it, but it was imperative that both hands were on the wheel at all times. If not, the car would let off a siren as loud as anything, so it was wise to follow the previously set conditions.

Gregory 'drove' for just under an hour, as Potter Manor was relatively near to London. Potter Manor was the home that Gregory had inherited when his Uncle died, it was the family home and these Potter's summer home.

Lily suppressed a gasp when she saw the mansion, which it was. An enormous yellow house on land so large it didn't look like it belonged. This was clearly a magic resident-owned house, it was simply too perfect not to be. There was a small stable to the left of the mansion, and Lily could see part of a lake on the right, and a bit of a race track in the back.

"Welcome home," Gregory announced as they drove up to the house. He stopped the car and floated Lily and James' luggage into the house, letting his wife take the children inside.

"You'll excuse the mess, dears, Uncle Barry doesn't clean much, does he?" Marium asked her son, "But don't worry, Lucia will be arriving soon." James shot Lily a small smile, then stepped up to the house and opened the monstrous door.

Lily suppressed another gasp when she entered. It was just as grand and beautiful as the outside was. There was a grand staircase in the center of the room, with doors leading off into other rooms. The floors were gleaming wood and the windows were Victorian style.

James shyly led Lily up to the room she would be staying in, which she didn't fully understand. He had never been shy around her or anyone before.

"Tanks, James, for everything. It's all so beautiful here!" she gushed.

"That's fine. I wouldn't want you to stay with your sister," James smiled and walked a few doors down to his room.

In front of Lily was the hugest bed she had ever seen, with an impressive book case and chest of drawers on the left wall. There was a full sized mirror on her right wall, an open door next to the mirror revealed a large, luxurious bathroom and a grand door after that held a huge walk-in closet.

Lily glanced in the mirror and her eyes widened slightly when she caught her appearance. Her face was flushed and her hair was coming out of the clip that had held it earlier. She took multiple deep breaths until her face returned to its usual pale appearance, then let her hair fall to her waist briefly before catching it in the clip again and rushing over to the book shelf.

James knew her very well, which was apparent as the room that he had chosen for her had a fully stocked bookshelf, which Lily planned to take advantage of immediately. She pulled one, but it wouldn't move. She tugged a little harder and the book case shifted. Lily gasped. A secret room. Very intriguing! She peeked inside and immediately rushed forward. There were clothes and jewelry from just about every era, shoved into the room without another thought, but the bookcase didn't look like it had been moved in a long time and Lily wondered if it had something to do with 'Uncle Barry'. Lily decided not to snoop any longer and pushed the book back into the shelf, causing the bookcase to shift back into its original position. Perfect. If you hadn't known it was there, you never could have found the room.

It was nearly sun down and Marium could be found in the kitchen, attempting to cook. She very rarely was required to perform this chore, as they usually had Lucia to help, if not take over. Thankfully there was a crack and the little house elf appeared in the foyer.

"Master James! Master and Mistress Potter! Lucia is here!" she screamed. James went flying into the foyer to see his favorite House Elf in the world. "Master James! Lucia missed you!" she shrieked, then hugged as high up as she could get, which was somewhere around his middle.

"I missed you too, 'Cia. How was your year?" he asked excitedly. This was the Elf from his first memory. She was singing and playing with him about the age of four, his first happy memory among many newer ones.

"Lucia had a wonderful year, but without Master James to look after, Lucia got boredsome!" the House Elf beamed, "how was Hog-y-warts? Lucia hears it is most wonderful!"

"Hogwarts is great, but I'll admit, I missed my parents." James said with a smile. "We have a guest this summer," he added, Lucia looked happier than ever.

"Really? A house guest? A noble Master or fair Mistress?" Lucia asked excitedly.

"Um, Lily is a girl, if that's what you mean," James informed her, not wanting to refer to Lily as a 'fair' anything.

By now his parents and Lily had entered the room. Marium and Gregory had bid their House Elf good evening, but Lily looked slightly frightened, as she had only really met one house elf before.

"Lily," James said warmly, "This is our House Elf, Lucia. Lucia, this is Lily,"

Lucia beamed and curtsied and Lily smiled nervously, "Hello, Lucia. Nice to meet you," Lily ventured.

"Nice to meet you too, Miss Lily! It shall be so excitement-ful to have another witch to look after!" Lucia gushed, clearly very content in her job. Lily smiled a bit more openly, then Lucia ran into the kitchen to remedy the mess that Marium had created.

"Don't worry, she's harmless," James whispered.

"Awful chipper little thing, isn't she?" Lily whispered back. James nodded slowly.

"We love her. She really belongs with this family as much as I do, if not more," he replied, then they went into the living room, which was decorated much like Gryffindor Common Room, as everyone in the Potter line had been in that house and had related to it exceptionally well.

About an hour later, Lucia called that dinner was ready and they made small talk. James explained to her that he had received a reply to the letter he had sent both Sirius and Remus the instant he had arrived. They both said that they couldn't get away that summer, but to tell Lily hello for them, and that they would see her on the train in a few months.

The first two months were over before they began, James taught Lily how to ride a horse, and Lily showed him the secret room. He said that nobody had been able to find that room for generations, but everyone was sure that it was somewhere. He congratulated her thoroughly on finding it, and encouraged her to explore it.

Over all, Lily was sad to see the house go. She had enjoyed her stay immensely, and James said that he was sure that she could visit again, but she had to go home to her parents for August. She didn't really know why they'd sent for her, but she flooed back home July 28th, half anxious to see her parents and half heavy-hearted for leaving James.

"Hi mummy!" she exclaimed when she stepped out of the fireplace.

Lily's mother didn't know when she would be returning, so was very surprised to see her come out of a fireplace, (try to remember, Lily is muggle-born).

"Lily! Darling! How was your school? How was your friend? Oh, I missed you so much!" Lily's mother gushed, but Lily noticed that she didn't hug her back, and she stayed sitting down.

"Mummy, are you okay?" Lily asked nervously. Her mother never got sick, ever.

Just then Lily's dad walked in and set a tray down on the coffee table, when he turned and saw Lily he gasped in surprise, "Lily!" he yelped, "Um, welcome home!"

"Hi dad," Lily greeted distractedly, she was still staring at her mum, on closer inspection she had bags under her eyes and her skin had grayed slightly.

"Um, Kevin, dear, would you mind?" Lily's mum asked her dad, Kevin took Lily into the next room and told her quietly, "Lily, your mother is very sick. She caught something on the trip and… the doctors don't know how long she's going to live."

Lily' jaw dropped. Surely she would get better… wouldn't she? And why hadn't anyone told her? She would have come home as soon as she heard. Why.. why….. She didn't know what she didn't understand the most. Lily sank to the floor and breathed heavily. Kevin left her to tend to his wife, and Lily found a tear leaking from her eye. And why wasn't Petunia there?

Two weeks later, Lily was getting more used to her mother being sick. She wasn't contagious, and she had lasted this long. It became sort of a part of life. Petunia would take Lily to the train station on the first of September, as Kevin didn't want to leave his wife's side for a moment. This was fine with Lily, she didn't want her mother unattended for any longer than she had to be.

"Everything all packed up?" a nervous voice asked Lily from her bedroom door.

"Yes, dad. When is Petty getting here?" she asked, not sure how to comfort her father.

"She should be here any minute. Do try to be nice to her." Kevin pleaded.

Seeing the hurt look of her fathers face, Lily tried to ease his suffering as best she could. "Of course, dad." She managed a weak smile, "I'll take my things downstairs." she said bravely. Her father smiled and nodded, then set off back to his bedroom, where Lily's mother was spending all of her time lately.

"Goodbye mummy, I love you," Lily said quietly, then she hugged her sleeping mother and went downstairs. Petunia was waiting impatiently in the doorway.

"Hurry up, freak! Vernon is waiting in the car." She snapped.

Lily sighed and went outside to the ugly car with the ugly man stuffed inside it. Under normal circumstances she would have retorted, but she had promised to try to be nice to her sister. She was doing a favor by driving her to the train station, after all.

"Thanks for the ride, Petty," Lily muttered as the car drove off. She had just managed to retrieve her trunk from the back of the car before Vernon drove off like a mad man. Lily sighed once more then entered the building, looking forward to her second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

A/N- The first summer is over, and the second year is about to begin. I know that Petunia's a cow, but she's supposed to be, isn't she? And I figured that since, in the books, she freaks about how perfect Lily is, Lily should take the high road as often as possible, to make Petunia feel guilty for being all…cow-y.

Don't you just love Lucia? I really do!

Love it of hate it, at least tell me why

Kisses and Cupcakes to those who reply

TearsofBlack101


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize belongs to me

Lily discreetly leaned into the barrier between platforms nine and ten and managed to get into platform 9¾ safely. She had her trunk on a trolley, and was now trying to figure out how to get it onto the gigantic scarlet steam engine.

Sirius had gotten his things into a compartment a few minutes before and had just spotted his favorite girl. He ran up to her, picked her up and spun her in a circle, setting her back on her feet he hugged her tightly.

"I missed you sooo much, Lils, you wouldn't even believe it!" he exclaimed.

Lily laughed, "I missed you too, Sirius," he easily lifted her trunk into the compartment and then helped her in. which made her feel very much like a five year old.

"How was your summer?" Sirius asked anxiously.

"…Fine," Lily lied. She didn't want to worry anybody, so she decided not to tell anyone. It's not like anything would happen with her mother soon. "And yours?" she asked, almost resenting the question as she knew the answer.

"God-awful!" Sirius replied miserably, "My brother, Regalus, should be coming next year… I'm a little worried about him being at home all the time with my crazed relatives… Oh, I really got it for being in Gryffindor. I think the neighbors could hear them, and that's really saying something, we're unplottable, they can't even see us!" he exclaimed.

Lily laughed and soon they were joined by Remus and James, who were all very curious about her summer. She lied to all of them, getting slightly more depressed every time she did, but she plastered a grin on her face and listened to them talk about their own summers.

James had had a birthday party big enough to rival the Queens Christmas ball, and Remus had spent a quiet holiday at home, but he looked as sickly as he had the first day of the year before. Sirius noted this, but brushed it off to nerves and continued complaining loudly about his family.

Their whole ride to Hogwarts was filled with laughing and pigging out on trolley items, catching up and telling new jokes, oh, and discussing ways they had thought of to tick off Filch and their favorite Slytherin, Snivellus.

"Oo, we may have a new favorite." Sirius said darkly, "My cousin, Bellatrix is coming this year. Too bad Andromeda graduated a year before we came… Could've used her around." They all laughed and soon Lily was lulled to sleep in the same fashion she had on their last journey from Hogwarts.

She didn't know what it was about trains, they just put her to sleep like a cradle. Not that James minded her falling asleep in his lap, in fact he was ecstatic, and he shushed the other boys whenever they raised their voices to more than that of a whisper.

After taking a bit of this, Sirius got annoyed and yelled as loud as he could, startling Lily awake and frustrating James to no end. On the bright side, Remus thought it was brilliant, and they reenacted Sirius screaming and Lily jumping over and over again on the trip.

Finally, the train stopped and they were proud to take a carriage up to the monstrous school looming up ahead of them. Lily settled into deep contentment, and all thought of her mother were pushed to the back of her mind as Hogwarts entered the front of it.

They stepped out of the carriage and into the Great Hall. It was alight with decorations, and Sirius was happy to see the candles twinkling around the room. Remus was relieved when he glanced up at the sky. The full moon had been last week, and he was to enjoy most of September burden-free.

The sorting was boring. Bellatrix Black was put in Slytherin immediately, sneering at the Gryffindors as she made her way to their rivals house table. The food was as amazing as ever, though Lily felt a twinge of guilt eating the food that the House Elves made. Finally, Professor Albus Dumbledore stood and the whole school fell silent immediately.

"Welcome to you all. It's wonderful to see so many new and old faces in our Great Hall. A few start of term notices. The Forbidden Forest is named that for a reason, and all would do well to keep out of it. Additionally, while I thought that you could all stay away from a tree that beat you to shreds, it was made clear last term that you can not. Keep away from said Whomping Willow unless you want a severe… Whomping." He chuckled to himself and a few students nervously joined him.

"There is a newly written list of all restricted items in Mr. Filches office, if anyone would like to review it. Beyond that I have only to say good night, and pleasant dreams to you all."

There was a large scraping noise as all the students made their way out of the Great Hall. Remus, James, Sirius and Lily cut away from the Gryffindor mob, and took a few shortcuts to Gryffindor Common Room. Unfortunately, they didn't know the password yet, and had to wait a full five minutes for the prefects leading the first years to show up and let them in. They all sighed as they entered. They were home.

Lily's things were in the girls second year dormitory, and she intended to sleep there if it killed her. No matter how nasty the other girls were, which they were.

"Oh, are you back?" one girl asked.

"We thought you'd stay with the boys," another snottily remarked

"Go to Slytherin, you belong there," the first one said.

"Just get out of here." The second one finished. Lily ignored them as best she could, though she was still taken aback when she heard how mean they were. She pretended to sleep until she heard them start snoring loudly, then she climbed out the window and onto the roof, not to cry, but to look at the beautiful grounds below her.

When she got out she nearly fell off again. There were her favorite boys, holding a blanket and standing around one, too. Sirius hugged her, then brought her over and set her down on the blanket, wrapping her up in the other one.

"We heard everything. My God, what cows," he retorted.

Remus sighed, "You never had much sense when it came to the cold." It was true, she was once again outside in a tank top and boxers.

Lily smiled up at them then gestured for them to sit down with her and share the blanket. They gladly did, for though it had been quite warm in the afternoon, the sun was long past set and the earth had grown cold with the lack of its shining orb.

Before long James shivered and Lily told them all to go inside. It was just too cold outside for anyone but her and her lack of sense. She went in too. Back to the girls dormitory, thank you, though they offered her Peter's bed. Apparently he had managed to switch into Slytherin after all, and was sort of a disgrace amongst the Gryffindors. Lily had an inkling that somebody knew about her staying in their dormitory, as his bed remained in the room, when it could have easily been removed.

Lily drifted off to sleep a long time after she went inside, with her mind full of worries. For herself, for her mother, for these girls. What had happened to them to make them all so cruel? It didn't feel ten minutes later that she heard a large crash from the staircase. She snapped awake and rushed over to them, she was surprised to slip down. The stairs had turned into a slide.

Remus and James were standing and Sirius was in a heap on the floor, with Lily now on top of him. "What are you doing?" Lily laughed.

"Getting you. Lessons start in fifteen minutes." Remus answered her.

Lily's eyes widened, "What? But I set my alarm!" then it dawned on her, 'those cows' had turned it off.

"Oh," she muttered, "I'll be right back." She ran up the freshly transformed stairs and she changed in record time, then dashed back downstairs. Remus handed her a piece of toast that he had grabbed when they realized that she wasn't coming, then they used their secrets and got to their first class on time.

"Well, that was interesting" Sirius fibbed. They had just returned to the Common Room from History of Magic. Old Mr. Binns looked like he was going to kick the bucket any day now, but he hadn't yet and continued droning on at the front of the class, with frequent coughing fits. Lily, being far more alert to sicknesses and possible deaths since her mum had fallen ill, was very worried, but tried not to show it lest anybody ask why.

"I know," Remus replied tiredly, "But he was trying… I guess old wizards trying to decide a regulation for flying carpets just isn't that interesting."

James laughed a little, but Sirius was still too bored to pay attention and Lily was still too concerned to listen, so he was the only one.

"God, what's wrong with you guys?" James asked what he realized he was the only one sniggering.

Sirius rolled his eyes, "that is the more boring lesson… Sorry, mate, my brain still hasn't turned on yet."

Lily coughed and said "Um… me too." While James didn't look completely satisfied he took it as Professor Binns' fault and let it go.

September 18th marked Lily's birthday, and they spent it much the same as they had Sirius'. Lily tried to forget her troubles, or at least drown them in cake on the roof. She was still having trouble with her dorm-mates, and came up there frequently to think.

It became her sanctuary. She was careful not to let the other girls see her go out there. Any time the boys needed her they knew where to look and they all agreed that it was one of the best places in the castle, if only for the company.

Lily got a whole boat load of candy from all of them, plus a quill from Sirius and bracelet from James that matched the necklace she had received for Christmas the year before.

Nothing really happened until after Remus' birthday, on October 19th, which they spent the same way they had everyone else's. They were now all officially twelve years old.

"Hey," Sirius remarked one day, "my birthday is on the 27th, Lilikins' on the 18th, Remies' is the 19th… when's your, Jamie?" he asked, trying to annoy them all with the nick names.

"August 1st" he replied, feeling thoroughly left out.

"That's cool too, man," Sirius consoled.

"and ours go August, September, October," Lily pointed out. Sirius pouted for a minute, then he remembered that his birthday was first, which seemed to cheer him just fine. "Wait, if your birthday is before all of ours… shouldn't you be a third year?" Lily asked confusedly.

"Um… yeah," Sirius replied, "My parents didn't want me to go here. It took a lot of persuading. Almost the whole years worth. Why? Are you going to abandon me now?" he asked sarcastically.

Lily smiled at him and replied, "Of course not, Sirius. Who else could reach the top shelf in the kitchens?"

"Oh, haha," Sirius said darkly, but he was smiling, which Lily took as a good sign.

Remus would have to visit his mum again over Halloween this year, which rather depressed all of them. They didn't want to have a pumpkin war without him. So they settled for being good little children, which was fortunate because Dumbledore warned them all against it before the Halloween feast began.

"You should all be warned, for I have been informed that certain pumpkin related actions are to be punished this year." Then he sat down and James could've sworn he saw him flick a spoonful of mashed potatoes at McGonagall.

They got through the feast without problems. When everyone was done, the Marauders trooped out of the Great Hall and started making their way for Gryffindor Common Room.

"Hey look, it's the Gryffindor geeks," they heard someone hiss, they spun around to come face-to-face with none other than Severus Snape.

James' hand dove for his wand, and he shot out a jinx before Snape could look twice. Unfortunately for him, so had Sirius and Lily. He ended up much resembling a slug, with bat bogeys flying around him and attacking him. Sirius looked down in admiration at Lily's bat bogey hex, then kicked Snape and stalked off.

"That was nice," James complimented.

"Yours too," Lily returned. He blushed slightly, and both of them had to jog to catch up to Sirius.

When they reached the common room, Lily found that she would prefer to be alone on the roof than with all the snotty girls, so she took off for the boys dormitory window. Sirius and James both knew where she was going and didn't get too worried about it. They still felt a twinge of fear every time they saw her heading for the roof. How easily could she fall off? But they tried to be confident in her ability and trust her.

Lily sat out there for hours, staring at the full moon and thinking about the stars and the supposed squid, when finally, Sirius joined her. "You're going to freeze to death on us some day, aren't you?" he asked her.

Lily laughed, "Probably," she replied. He laid down next to her and they stared at the very large moon. Then it hit her. "Ohmygosh!" she exclaimed, "Ohmygosh, ohmygosh!"

"What?" Sirius asked excitedly. She didn't freak out like this often, and it was always fun to watch.

"Oh, where's that book?" Lily cried. She leapt up and flung herself over the edge of the castle. Sirius cringed and peeked after her to make sure she hadn't fallen, which, of course, she hadn't.

She returned shortly with the book Sirius had gotten her last year for Christmas. She plopped down and started reading furiously. Sirius was too lazy or to tired to bother reading along, sure that she would exclaim her findings anyways.

She muttered to herself as she read, "Always leaves on a full moon… comes back a few days later… scratched up…. Oh…God…"

"What?" an impatient Sirius begged.

"Remus Lupin is a…" she lowered her voice to a whisper, "werewolf"

A/N- Duun Duun Duuuuuuun.

They know. Or…They think they know. She knows, and they think they know…I'm so confused.

Can't you just see Dumbledore pouting about not having a pumpkin war this year? That's my favorite part of the whole chapter.

Love it or hate it, at least tell me why,

Kisses and Cupcakes to reviewers

TearsofBlack101


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize belongs to me

"What?" Sirius asked, looking thoroughly frightened. Little Remmie, a werewolf? It was impossible!

"He's a werewolf! It all fits! He's gone once a month, he comes back all scratched up, and he hates the moon. He cringes every time he sees it!" Lily exclaimed.

They were still on the rooftop, and the moment Sirius glanced at the moon he realized that she was right.

Sirius wanted to help with the whole thing, so he wracked his brain for evidence, "And his dad's a healer. If his mum was sick he could fix her in no time!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Exactly." James said.

He had only just climbed up to the roof. The others hadn't even seen him. They had both jumped when they heard his voice.

"So I guess now we decide… Do we stick with him?" he asked, not wanting to be the one to bring it up.

"Of course we do!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Yeah, I wouldn't abandon him." Lily added. James nodded in agreement, and they decided to confront him when he got back.

The next few days went by far too slowly for them.

They wanted to be on with it already. They wanted to talk to their friend about his lycanthropy.

"Lils, you've gotta do it." Sirius told her the day they expected him back.

They were sitting in the boys dormitory, waiting for Remus.

"What?" she squealed. That was not part of the plan.

"He's right," James agreed, like he always did. "You know it best."

"Fine." Lily said huffed. She could see that there was no getting out of it.

Just then the door creaked open and Remus collapsed on his bed. "Remmie?" Lily called, Remus jumped. "Remmie, are you okay?"

"Hehe," Remus tried unsuccessfully to laugh, "I'm fine. Rough night. My, er, mum, you know."

"Um, Remmie," Lily said softly, "We know your mum is fine."

"What?" Remus stammered. The other boys nodded furiously, "Pk, so she's fine. I… I skip for a few days every once in awhile. So? School's hard, if I want to skiv off a few days, I think I'm entitled."

"Remmie, you 'skiv off' every full moon." Lily said gently.

"I've… I've got to go." Remus said quickly, then he climbed out the window and onto the roof, which was particularly surprising and daring as he was rather afraid of heights.

Lily sighed. "I'll go get him." she said quietly.

Then swung gracefully onto the roof.

"Remus?" she called. He was huddled in the corner of the turret with his knees pulled up to his chest, breathing very heavily.

"Go away." he pleaded. He started rocking back and forth.

"Remmie, we just want to talk to you," Lily said quietly. He made a perfect terrified image, and it made her want to cry.

"No you don't. They never do." He replied shortly, still rocking himself.

"Who's 'they', Remmie?" Lily asked, her voice wobbling slightly.

"Everybody. I suppose you've figured it all out, have you? I suppose you want to abandon me, don't you?" Remus demanded, his voice so quiet it was a feeble plea.

"I'd much rather hear it from you," Lily requested gently. She reached out to touch his arm, but he flinched and she jumped back.

"Hear what? I don't know what you're talking about," Remus said, one last feeble attempt not to be found out.

"Remmie, we're not going to change anything. Just tell me." Lily begged. A single tear rolled down her cheek, almost representing Remus' solitude.

"That's what you say now, but what about when I tell you that I'm a… I'm a _werewolf_." Remus spat the word, like dirt in his mouth, then he looked up at her, terrified at her reaction.

He was not surprised to see her crying.

"Now I've ruined everything. I guess I'll just leave like I have every other time..." He sounded as if it was the only option. "You know… I really thought this time was different. I thought you were my friends."

His voice betrayed the cool words of his indifference. He was hurt.

"I forgot that a werewolf can't have any friends. Everyone's afraid. Everybody runs. I'll just leave." He stood to walk to the window, but Lily grabbed him in a hug.

"Remmie, I told you we weren't going to change anything, and we're not! We are your friends. We don't care that you're a werewolf!" she cried, tears freely rolling down her cheeks.

"W-what?" Remus asked, not believing what he had heard. Somebody wanted to be friends with him… even after they knew?

"We're still your best friends, Remmie! Nothing's going to change that!" Lily exclaimed.

Remus hugged her back and they stood there for a long time, tears freely streaming.

"Come on." Lily said with a sniff. "The others will want to know you're okay."

Remus nodded slowly and allowed himself to be lead to the edge. He went first, and clambered over the edge, then Lily swung in.

He had never seen her coming back in before, and he had to admit that it was beautiful, even in the middle of all this.

Sirius was the first to hear them land. He looked up at Remus with concern pouring out it his eyes.

"Remus, mate… Are you okay?"

Remus realized that this was as close as Sirius got to grave and concerned. He took it as a token of their friendship that he bothered, and nodded slowly.

James stood up and pulled Remus into an awkward hug.

"Glad to have you back," he said.

Lily almost rolled her eyes at this, but led Remus to his bed and sat down next to him.

"Obviously we're not going to change anything." She said again.

That was exactly what he needed so badly to hear.

"How are the… the transformations?" she asked nervously.

"You don't want to hear about those." Remus said firmly. They were terrible, really.

"Yes we do. We want to hear everything about it. Start at the beginning," Lily replied just as firmly.

Remus realized that along their whole friendship, he had truly wanted to tell them, and so he did.

He started when he was a child.

"You remember, I told you I live on the edge of a forest… My parents were always telling me to stay out of there, but I didn't listen. I thought I could handle anything. I was a wizard, wasn't I? I was about five when it happened.

"I was walking through the woods, trying to sneak up on cats and deer, and I heard this moaning behind me. I whirled around and there was a man I thought I recognized."

He shook his head before continuing, as if ridding himself of his own stupidity.

"Then the clouds parted, and he was reeling in pain. His fingers got longer, then long claws grew at the ends. His face grew fur… His eyes turned yellow, and the pupils got leaner. He was screaming. He couldn't stop it."

Remus seemed as if he could still see that man in his mind. As if it was embedded, and branded into his brain.

"He stretched out a little and I could see that he had transformed into a werewolf. A werewolf was right next to me. I tried to run away, but I couldn't move. He ran up to me and bit me while I screamed. His pupils sort of returned to normal after that. He ran away and I lay there screaming and crying in the forest.

"My dad heard me and came running. He saw the bite on my arm and rushed me back to the house. He tried everything he could think of, but even now there's no cure. I was cursed."

Lily held back a gasp. He didn't need to be interrupted.

"Everyone was afraid of me… Everybody _is_ afraid of me. The trolley lady on the train is… I went through three schools trying to find one that would accept me for who I am, and then finally, I got an acceptance letter to Hogwarts. Well, you know the rest after that."

Through his whole story, James, Sirius and Lily had stared at him, not really afraid, but more… enthralled. They had no idea when they met little Remus on the train that he was a werewolf.

Even when they figured it out they had no idea how… dangerous it was… It really brought the whole thing to life. It made everything seem more real.

The pain was what hit Sirius the most. He had no idea the pain involved.

"What happened to the man that… that bit you?" Lily asked, sounding very frightened.

"He killed himself." Remus answered bluntly. "He couldn't stand that he had bit someone… cursed them the same way he had been. That garbage that werewolves know what they're doing is rubbish. But sometimes… my mother talks to me under the door, and it sort of snaps me back into life…"

There was a long silence, then James said "We're going to help."

This was exactly what Sirius and Lily were thinking, but they thought it sounded stupid, so hadn't said anything. That had probably been a good idea.

Remus laughed harshly. "How? You can't be anywhere near me, I'd bite you."

Lily's mind was racing, "Animagus." she whispered. Sirius looked at her like she was crazy, but she quickly defended herself. "No, we could do it. We could become Animagi."

"It's ridiculous." James said, "But it's the only thing we can do. All right, I'm in."

Sirius was not about to be left out. He quickly agreed to join them.

"You can't." Remus said flatly, "It's too hard. It takes too long. You can't."

He sounded very weary, and very dejected. There had been a moment in there where he thought of how wonderful it would have been to have his friends out there with him, but then his senses returned to normal. He wouldn't put his friends… his _only_ friends through that.

"It could go wrong. It'd take years."

Sirius' eyes were already twinkling. He didn't do well with being told 'no'.

"We'll make it work." He said quietly.

They spent that night talking about what they wanted to transform into. Lily remembered everything about that transfiguration lesson in their first year.

She remembered all the dangers, and that the form chooses the wizard, not the other way around.

Lily was too exhausted to go to the girls dormitory that night, so she slept in her bed with the boys curled up around her. Tomorrow, they would start looking for the books they needed.

They searched the library up and down that week, and when they didn't find anything that they needed, they realized that the only possibility was the restricted section.

They didn't know how to get in. You needed a signed note from a teacher to get a book, and no student stepped foot inside it. You would present your note to the librarian, Madame Pince, who would creep back to the restricted section and pull out the book you needed.

They had no other option but to keep looking in the regular sections.

They spent hours in the library, probably the most that Sirius and James ever had, and still came up with nothing.

They were the first ones to put their names on the list to stay there over Christmas.

As much as Lily wanted to go see her mum, nothing had happened with her yet, and her father would owl her if her mum got any worse, wouldn't he?

"I love it when this old castle's empty!" Sirius exclaimed. They were wandering the halls in search of new rooms and passageways. So far, they knew six ways out of Hogwarts, and were suspicious about a seventh behind a large mirror.

"I know!" Lily agreed, "No snobby girls, no Slytherins, it's just.. peaceful."

There were other students who stayed behind, but they were two first years and a sixth year, so the castle was pretty much theirs.

Remus nodded, "It's great, but it's almost dinner time, and with Christmas tomorrow, it should be great."

James was still in the library, not that he enjoyed looking through the books, but he just couldn't give up. It wasn't in his nature.

They trooped down to the Great Hall, this time the full moon landed tonight, so Remus bid them good night and headed for outside, to underneath the Whomping Willow.

He had explained all of this to them. There was a knot in the tree. You simply had to prod it with a stick, and an entrance would appear.

Oh, and when it did, the Whomping Willow would quit trying to beat you to a pulp.

You slip down there and at the end of a tunnel is the Shrieking Shack, (which even second years knew about, though they didn't go on Hogsmead trips until third year) or the supposedly most haunted building in all of Britain.

Of course, they now knew that it wasn't haunted by ghosts and evil spirits at all. Just Remus.

Sirius and Lily arrived in the Great Hall and there was soft music playing. Albus and Professor McGonagall were dancing in the middle of the hall, which Lily thought was very strange until Sirius swept her up in a dance.

They twirled about for a few minutes, then James arrived and cut in. Sirius went to speak with the Headmaster and came back with information.

The Yule ball would have been held tonight if it hadn't been for a terrible accident about fifteen years ago. They had stopped the Triwizard Tournament then, but the Professors missed the dance, and one of their own once every Christmas Eve, before the feast. Unfortunately not many people knew about this and none of the students who did wanted their evening to be ruined by a bunch of kids mulling about.

James and Lily kept twirling about the Great Hall. Sirius picked up a first year and was dancing with her. He stopped by Lily and James and informed the that he had just heard Albus Dumbledore call Professor McGonagall 'Minnie', which amused him to no end.

"It was great! Just, 'You did wonderfully on the decorations, Minnie' so casual!" Sirius beamed.

James laughed and Lily smiled weakly, but thought that it was very cute, and also thought that it was the Professors business, not theirs.

Sirius' first year was dancing with someone else, so he picked up the other one. He was already getting a reputation as a cutie in school, and he used it to his advantage.

An hour or so later, the music stopped and Dumbledore lead the way to a grand dining table with a silver table cloth.

They ate dinner with a great lot of laughter and talking amongst themselves, then everyone retired to their beds.

Lily slept in the boys dormitory that night, not wanting to be alone, and was thrilled that she could sleep in and not worry about any rude comments the next morning.

They all slept in far past their usual time. Even James, who normally was up at the crack of dawn.

They actually only woke up at the last moment, when Sirius shouted "PRESENTS!!!" as loud as he possibly could.

Somebody had been paying attention, as there were presents for Lily in the pile in the middle of the floor too.

Everyone got chocolate, and now when Remus got 16 boxes from his parents, everyone understood (although they still thought it was weird).

For some reason chocolate helped his recovery after the werewolf transformation.

Lily got a joint present from her favorite boys. A gorgeous silver bracelet with inlaid diamonds. She had thanked them all and hugged them many, many times, and they were very satisfied with themselves, which they should have been.

Lily got each one of them a ring with a 'G' and 'M' entwined, for 'Gryffindor' and 'Marauder'. She also had one for herself, and, being exceptionally amazing at charms, she had charmed them to light up bright red and gold and tighten if one of them was in trouble or needed another one.

The days before Sirius' birthday were spent asking the House Elves about French fries and cake, then decorating the rooftop.

They had remembered to ask Professor 'Minnie' McGonagall and Professor Flitwick about decoration spells, and before long, the rooftop was amazingly sparkling and had all sorts of balloons and ice sickles, reading _'Happy Birthday Not-So-Sirius Black'. _

They were quite pleased with it so when the time came, they were almost as excited as Sirius about the decorations. The best part, though, was the food. French fries and a cake with a picture of a Gryffindor lion on it.

"Guys!" Sirius exclaimed when he climbed up.

He hugged them all then blew out the candles on his cake, secretly wishing that the restricted section problem would be solved.

That night Dana came with a large package for James. On the top it read:

_Happy Belated Christmas, James, _

_always knew I'd pass this down to you, _

_love Dad_

James carefully undid the wrapping to reveal a silvery cloth. Sirius gawked and James gasped. Remus stared and Lily looked around, bewildered.

"Do you realize what this means?" James asked quietly.

"Restricted section." Sirius whispered, "That's what I wished for and…. And here it came! A miracle on my birthday!" he cried

Lily still didn't understand. "What's so special about a cloak?" she asked curiously.

"Lils, this isn't just a cloak." Sirius muttered, "It's an invisibility cloak!"

"A what now?" she asked stupidly, half wanting a demonstration, and half wanting to tick him off.

Sirius sighed. "What does the name tell you, Lilikins? It turns you invisible!" he exclaimed.

Lily didn't know if she believed it and on cue, James stood, threw it about his shoulders and disappeared.

"Where'd he go?" Lily asked, not wondering where he'd disappeared to. Obviously that was under the cloak. She wanted to know where he had run off to in the cloak, and suddenly she was thrown in to the air and whirled around in circles.

She giggled and grasped about for something to hold on to. She reached through the air and yanked. The hood of the cloak fell, revealing James' grinning face.

"Scared you," James said quietly, setting Lily on the floor.

"Why is it Lily who has all the fun around here?" Sirius asked out of nowhere, "She's the only one who ever gets picked up." He pouted.

James smiled slightly, "Well, Sirius," Then he disappeared into the cloak and Sirius was seen hovering an inch or two above the ground. "That may have something to do with weight. I can't lift you up." He finished simply.

Sirius pouted a moment more, then easily lifted a still invisible James. "I think you're just weak, mate" he said, laughing.

Remus was watching this with a grin on his face, which faded slightly when Lily was pulled under the cloak, and the dormitory door opened and closed.

"Aw, come on guys, don't use my birthday miracle without me!" Sirius shouted after James and Lily, but it was no use.

They returned almost an hour later with just one book on the subject of animagus transformation.

"We start tonight." James said mysteriously, then he yanked off the rest of the invisibility cloak and stashed it in the bottom of his trunk.

A/N- Et voila!

I love this story. The only problem is that it's been so long since I wrote it, I don't remember what happens next!

Review, please!!!!

Dani


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize belongs to me!

"Okay, it says the first step is to clear you mind and imagine yourself in a place of… 'utter solitude' then you check out your surroundings and… your Animagus form is supposed to… reveal itself…?" Remus was reading the instructions from his bed. He wasn't going to become an Animagus.

"Ugh" Sirius groaned, "What does that mean???" this was the fourth of fifth time they had tried that week, after giving up the first day. The rest of the school would be coming home in a few days, and then they wouldn't have the peace they had now.

Sirius, James and Lily were standing in the middle of the boys dormitory, trying to imagine 'utter solitude' which was difficult when Sirius kept moaning, and Remus kept repeating the instructions.

"Let's try this in the common room. There's much more space in there," James suggested.

He Sirius and Remus went downstairs, but as Lily neared the door, a tapping was heard on the window. An owl. Lily rushed over, took the letter, and read it.

Her mother was dead.

Lily flung herself out the window and onto the roof, sobbing wildly. The boys were in the common room before she had read the letter, and so didn't know that anything was wrong.

About a millisecond later, Remus winced. The ring he was wearing was getting tighter and redder by the second. It wasn't terribly painful, but the charm that Lily had put on it made its point.

"Woah," James exclaimed, "Is that going on with your ring, too?"

"Yeah" Sirius said, "…Oh god, Lily."

He hurtled up the stairs and flung open the door to his dormitory. The room was empty, but the curtains on the window were swinging in the wind.

Sirius was usually fairly timid about climbing out, but not this time. He flung himself out the window, and landed on the rooftop with a soft thump.

"Lils?" he asked, she was huddled the same way Remus had been when they figured out his big secret. She was sobbing uncontrollably. Sirius rushed over to her and knelt. He put his arms around her and rocked her gently until she could speak.

"My…..m-m-mum…." She cried. Sirius was bewildered. What about her mum? But he waited for her to speak again.

"She w-was ill o-over the s-summer….. d-didn't think it w-w-w-would happen th-this sooooon….." she bawled. Sirius gently lifted her fingers off the letter and read through it. He squeezed her tighter and clutched her to him the way he knew she needed to be. He had never loved his mother, but imagined his favorite relative, Andromeda dying and amplified it by a million to try to empathize.

"Lilikins… why didn't you tell us?" he asked gently.

"I… I didn't want to worry you," Lily whispered.

"Oh… no. No, this wouldn't worry us. This would make us want to help. When's the funeral?" he asked gently.

Normally the word 'funeral' would have sent her off again, but it was a token of how much she loved and trusted him that she just whispered "Tomorrow,"

"We'll be there." James said from the edge of the castle. Remus nodded behind him, and Sirius gave her a tiny smile that almost helped.

"Do they know what it was?' Sirius asked quietly. Lily shook her head, and Sirius' heart plummeted a little further. She was hurting so badly and she hadn't told them. What kind of friends were they that she felt she shouldn't? Then, without another word, she feinted.

Sirius started but just held her tighter, hoping that she would wake soon. The other boys went inside at his insistence that they would catch a cold. They didn't care about getting sick, but they could see that Sirius needed to be alone with Lily.

Even though it was James that fancied her, Sirius had always had a deeper sort of connection to Lily than James had. He couldn't explain it. She was like Sirius' twin sister from another life… They just knew.

It was nearly daybreak when Lily's eyelids fluttered open, Sirius hadn't fallen asleep the whole time, but he was just about to. "I'm a…. a tigress," she said quietly.

"A tigress?" Sirius asked with a smile, not quite understanding. He figured that she'd had some wild dream.

"My… my Animagus, I'm a… tigress… A white tigress." She said again. Then it clicked. Sirius stared at her, then told her that she should go inside. She complied, though she would much rather spend the whole day up there on that roof top than go to a funeral.

Sirius helped her all morning. He helped her pick out something to wear, then helped her along to Professor Dumbledores' office. (he had consulted the book from the Room of Requirement for the headmasters office' location) He was never more than an arms length away, which was fortunate, because she looked prone to falling over.

"Professor, we need to floo to… well, to Lily's house, don't we?" he told the professor.

"And why do you need to do that?" Dumbledore asked. Sirius wished that he hadn't. He was supporting Lily's weight with one arm, and she had just fallen a little more.

"Her mum, professor, the… funeral, and-" Sirius struggled. Remus and James had elected to stay behind. She only needed Sirius, and they didn't want to make any trouble with her sister or other magi-phoebes.

"Ah, yes. Here. I have prepared a port key." Dumbledore said. Sirius wondered with frustration why the Headmaster was such a twit. "You're a good friend, Sirius. A good friend indeed." He said, then Sirius felt the familiar sensation behind his navel, checked one last time that Lily was holding onto the tea kettle, then they were soaring off.

They landed in a small living room which Sirius assumed was inside of Lily's house. He didn't think Dumbledore would mess up on the location, would he?

There was a cute flowered couch on his right, and he set Lily there. While she was light, he had not been more than an arm span away from her the whole day. Even when she was changing her clothes, he waited anxiously outside the bathroom, and had half support her immediately after she got out.

She was dressed in a short, simple black dress, her hair hanging everywhere. She would have to teach him how to fix that, wouldn't she? He wore a black suit. Their colors didn't seem to belong in this house that was so cheerful. So bright.

"Um, Mr. Evans?" Sirius called uncertainly. He didn't know if anyone was even there: It was quiet enough that there might not be. "Mr. Evans?" he called again. Lily tried to stand and almost managed. Sirius instinctively held out an arm and helped her.

"Come on, Lils. Let's go find your dad. I'll bet he's just in the next room." Sirius muttered to her, helping her up and hoping that he would find her dad to ask if this was even Lilys house.

They shuffled across the living room and into the same hall where Kevin had told Lily about her mom to begin with. Sirius opened the door and was caught in a trance. Lily snapped to attention, the scene bringing her out of the daze she had been in all day.

Her father, Kevin, Mr. Evans, had slit his own throat.

He was slumped on the floor, the sharp knife still in his hand, blood gushing from his neck. He turned his head towards them feebly, then gave out.

Lily gasped and Sirius thought he was going to throw up. They were both stuck there. They couldn't move. Couldn't think. Couldn't speak.

Lily Evans' father had just killed himself. And they had watched it.

Sirius suddenly came to his senses and tried to drag Lily away from the scene. In the end he had to actually pick her up and take her away from it. He found the port key and grabbed Lily's finger, then put both her and his finger on the teapot and were swept away.

"Ah, back so soon?" Professor Dumbledore asked from his desk.

"Professor, it's…" Sirius tried, but Lily interrupted him.

"My dad just… killed himself. He committed suicide. He's dead. Both my parents are dead. I'm an orphan." She muttered.

Dumbledore frowned. He looked to Sirius for an answer, which he was not given, and he then advised Sirius to take Lily to the hospital wing while he went back to Lily's house.

Back in the boys dormitory, Remus and James' rings were growing redder and redder. Now they were lit up like a Christmas tree, and Remus decide that they ought to go check the hospital wing, just in case something had gone wrong.

They ran into Sirius half way to the hospital wing, carrying Lily, who seemed to have lost all control of her limbs. "What happened?" James demanded angrily.

"Well… The good news is that she saw her Animagus form this morning… Then her dad killed himself this afternoon." Sirius said irritably.

James took Lily from him. Sirius stretched his arms out, a grimace on his face. They hurried to the hospital wing. When Madame Pomfrey saw Lily she didn't ask any questions, she just set her in a bed and forced some liquid down her throat that made her fall asleep instantly.

Immediately, the rings began to dim and loosen, which all three of the boys were glad for. Lily's own ring had made her finger start to turn purple, so they were glad on her behalf as well.

"Now," Remus said, when they saw that their favorite girl was okay, "What happened?"

Madame Pomfrey had long since returned to her office, so it was safe to talk.

Sirius sighed, but at least this time that he remembered the story, Lily wouldn't lose control of her legs.

"We took a port key to Lily's house. We figured someone there would tell us where the funeral was. Nobody was in the living room, so we walked over to a door that was open a little bit. When I opened it the rest of the way, Lily's dad was sitting on the floor… He was just dying when we walked up on him." Sirius shuddered, clearly disturbed, and he had never even met the man! He could only imagine how Lily felt. "So now she's an orphan." He added miserably, shooting a glance at Lily.

There was a long silence. "No she's not." James said quietly. Remus looked up, "We'll take care of her. We would've anyway." He finished.

"That's fine, James, but we're not her parents" Sirius informed him moodily.

"So?" James said, "We can still take care of her."

Sirius nodded slowly and Remus was smiling slightly, "He's right." Remus said quietly, "We would've taken care of her anyway. Now we'll just have to a little extra."

"Where will she go this summer?" Sirius asked darkly, remembering what he would face that holiday.

"My house," James said firmly. There really wasn't anywhere else for her to go, "You said it yourself, Sirius. My parents can't say 'no' to me."

Sirius smiled in spite of the situation. "The other kids will be here the day after tomorrow…They never have to know if she doesn't want them to." He said, trying very hard to look out for Lily's best interests even more than he would normally.

James, Remus and Sirius pulled up chairs and waited for Lily to wake up. Madame Pomfrey frowned slightly at this, but Sirius' firm and defiant gaze told her that they weren't going anywhere.

They were there for very nearly three hours, just waiting mostly in silence. They were all thinking about Lily.

Sirius couldn't imagine how terrible she felt, and he wished that they could share the burden with her, or make part of it go away. James wanted her to go to his house that summer, the way that he knew she would, and thought about what would happen if he was in her shoes. There would be no parents to ask permission. She had seen her father die, and hadn't even been told when her mother took that final plummet in her condition. Remus was miserable. He wished that there was something more that he could do, but he knew that there just wasn't. She couldn't stay at his house over the summer because of his transformations. He just wanted to help her.

Sirius related to her the best. He was the closest to not having parents at all, with parents that hated him, but he would still miss them a little bit if they died. (Mostly just on Regalus' behalf)

Slowly, Lily's eyes opened. Sirius was the only one that saw it. He jumped up and scooted closer to her. "Are you okay?" Sirius asked gently.

"I… I think so… I had the weirdest dream…" Lily said slowly, then, catching Sirius' expression, she realized that it hadn't been a dream and wished for her rooftop. "Oh," she whispered.

Sirius hopped up on her bed and hugged her. She was still sort of in shock, and didn't fully understand what happened.

"Alright," a voice said behind them, making them all jump, "Out." Madame Pomfrey demanded. Sirius smiled at her charmingly and she went back into her office, calling "Ten minutes"

"If I knew you were so handy, I would have befriended you a lot earlier," Lily said vaguely, making Sirius snort.

"You would've eventually. Everybody knows me, and everybody loves me. Honestly, you don't know how hard it is to be Sirius." Sirius sighed like he was carrying some huge burden. Lily smiled, glad that he was trying to make it seem like nothing had happened. This is what I meant, they just knew.

Sirius leapt up and Lily got out of the bed slowly. She blinked hard and then smiled and whispered, "My Animagus form is a white snow tigress." The boys who did not already know this gawked while Sirius put an arm around her and lead her back to Gryffindor common room.

"My little Tiger-Lilly," he called her. She didn't understand how she had gotten her vision, so was absolutely no help to Sirius and James, but they kept trying, and trying and trying.

They thought maybe it had to do with being in your favorite place, so Sirius spent hours lying in his bed. Every so often he would go limp, and everyone would get all excited, then he would start snoring and they would groan and wake him up.

They started school again. None of them were enjoying it very much, as they would much rather be doing their Animagus attempts. Even Remus was anxious with school and didn't reprimand them for copying his homework.

They had also started flying practice, just with the four of them. There was a chaser and beater graduating that year, so there would be an opening on the Gryffindor team. Quidditch was James' favorite sport. Sirius thought it was bloody brilliant and Lily was mildly interested. Remus preferred to sit in the stands and watch rather than play himself.

Sirius would be trying out for beater, James for chaser. Lily didn't want to be on the team, but loved flying so she joined their practices, too. They spent hours in the air, trying to free their minds, then the instant they got back inside they would sit and try to clear their minds and try to picture their Animagus form. Of course, they were terribly unsuccessful, and their practice never got them very far.

Lily was trying to see herself again. That was why she was bothering to try with them. She figured that if she could see herself twice, then she could be positive of what was in store for her.

Sirius was lying on the floor, where he had been for the last half hour. He figured that he couldn't very well fall asleep on the uncomfortable wood, and James was lying on his bed. Lily was sitting with her back to the wall, a few feet from Sirius, concentrating very deeply on nothing. Suddenly, her mind went black and a small white spot was seen growing larger and larger in front of her.

Lily watched in fascination, and finally, the white dot had grown into a grand snow tigress, with bold black stripes and emerald green eyes. It was her. It was Lily. The lioness laid down on a black spot of Lily's mind and began purring. A large black dog appeared to its left and a graceful stag on her right. Lily didn't understand this, but all three creatures looked undoubtedly happy.

Then she saw a large gray shadow in the corner of her view. The stag jumped up and blocked it from the tigress. The black dog stood on guard as well. He growled menacingly, and the gray figure stalked away. Lily felt a surge of pride well up in her chest, then her eyes snapped open and a tear leaked out of her eye.

"Lils, what's wrong?" Sirius asked, glad for the interruption, but sorry to see her upset.

Lily was beaming, which was an odd thing to do when crying, "I'm a tigress." She said again, happily.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize belongs to me

"You saw yourself again?" James asked in awe. Lily nodded and James felt extremely inferior. "Just… just like that?" he asked with disbelief.

"Yes, and it's not difficult, so you two had better get a move on." She said, impatient that they couldn't figure it out, but she was only too happy to wait for them. She understood that sometimes these boys just couldn't shut up, even in their own minds.

Sirius and James had never been so determined to make this work. Lily wouldn't move on without them, and they didn't want to stop her progress.

Unfortunately, it was soon the last week of the year and the boys were no closer to figuring out their forms than they were before they knew what they were trying to do. They had tried the Room of Requirement, but it really hadn't helped. They didn't know what they needed, so they didn't know what to ask it for.

End of term exams went as well as anyone could expect, which was amazingly. Even with the extra Animagus time James and Sirius were in the top four in the house.

Lily had dedicated every other Animagus experiment to studying, and it showed as she was once again tied with Remus for first place. James was slightly perturbed that she had beaten him again, but Sirius smiled and told her she deserved it. And he meant it, with all that had happened to her this term, it was a wonder she hadn't failed.

"I guess I'd better owl Petunia… She'll want to know when she should come to the train station." Lily sighed the last day of the year.

James looked startled, "That… won't be necessary. We aren't letting you go with her. We're not letting Sirius go either." Lily smiled and Sirius nodded.

Remus frowned slightly, "Well, I can visit, but I can't stay because of my…. problem…" he said slowly, trying to think of a way to refer to it without half the school knowing he was a werewolf.

He had continued taking a few days out of each month and returning extremely beaten up looking. His friends were oddly inspired by his appearance as he didn't like Madame Pomfrey to use any more healing magic on him than necessary. His father was a rather accomplished Healer and he just didn't trust anybody but him. He resigned himself to being stopped from bleeding all over the school, but that was it. He didn't even let her treat the scars, claiming that he would just talk to his father about it when he returned for the summer.

"Your furry little problem?" James suggested, Sirius' face lit up and it was agreed that that was how they would refer to Remus' lycathropy.

Remus frowned slightly, "Yes, that. Anyways, you'll have to tell me where you're staying or I won't be able to owl you. I can floo over for a bit if you like." He responded irritably. He didn't like his moon-lit troubles to be made light of.

Sirius could see that this annoyed Remus, and decided to take advantage of his usually un-touchable friend. He threw an arm around him and said "Aw, but Moon-man, what if he's unplottable?"

Remus cringed, and James folded his arms and said "Yeah, Moony, what if I'm unplottable?"

Lily had been looking from face to face, still not sure if she would be returning to Potter Manor that holiday. She had a slight frown on her face, "I don't get it…" she muttered.

Sirius smiled at her, "See, Lils, his… 'furry little problem' bothers him, which I can completely understand, but Moony here made the mistake of letting me know that." he beamed.

"No," Lily laughed, "I mean, am I going with James this summer? How did you ask Petty? How did you get her to agree?" she asked curiously.

James looked at her brightly, "I just owled her. She wasn't difficult to convince-" James said, then Sirius glared at him.

"Old cow," Sirius muttered darkly, making Lily laugh. It was a relief for James to have such a great best friend who could fix anything that James messed up with Lily.

"Alright then," Lily beamed, "I'll go with you. Much better than going with Petty anyway." Her face darkened slightly as she thought of where she would be going if her parents weren't… Well, if they weren't dead.

"Sirius, it's going to be so great!" James beamed, "We should start making that damn map, by the way,"

Sirius laughed, "Oh yeah. You okay, Lils?" he asked concernedly. Lily was staring out the window at the humid grounds.

"Um, yeah…" Lily said quietly, "I think I'll go to the roof." Then she swept past them and swung out the window. Sirius had stopped flinching every time she did, but still got worried about her, and listened carefully for a scream, just in case. Of course, Lily made it just fine.

Lily sat on the edge of the rooftop, staring out darkly. There hadn't even been a funeral. She though bitterly to herself. She hadn't been to either of her parents funerals. It was strictly against her fathers religion to commit suicide, so there hadn't been one. Something about not appreciating the gift of life…

Lily wasn't sure she believed in anything now. What kind of religion would punish someone's family for something that they did? Obviously he had been distraught, and he had never been particularly in control of his emotions. Lily knew that. But she never thought that he would leave her like that. She was only twelve. How was she supposed to deal with it? With being on her own?

She felt so abandoned by both her parents. The hole that had burrowed itself into her heart back when she first heard that her mother was sick had grown and now took up most of the space that normally held love and happiness. Lily had not truly been happy in months, and she wasn't sure if she ever would be again.

The boys had promised to be there for her, but she couldn't expect them to stick around when she was boring, and mopey.

Lily quickly formed a plan, and swung back in the window almost an hour after she had left, a large grin on her face. "Come on, you're going to need your wands…and the invisibility cloak…" Lily thought to James and Sirius, who were the only ones in the room. Remus had gone to take care of his 'furry little problem' so they would be alone that night.

Sirius saw her smile and was so relieved for it that he didn't bother to ask what she wanted to do. They wandered the corridors for a long while, taking this or that back stair case and hidden door along their way. They finally came to a halt outside a blank stretch of stone wall. Lily hissed a password and entered quietly. Nobody in the Slytherin common room looked up, which was fortunate because only Sirius and James were under the invisibility cloak.

They had let her lead them this far, but now that they were there, they stopped and stared at their favorite girl, standing with her wand at the ready in the middle of a room full of Slytherins.

"Hey!" one of them gasped. Lily stunned them silently with her wand, and it went like that, until every one of the thoughtless Slytherins was lying on the floor with the same blank look on their face.

None of the others cared enough to look up when they heard one gasp, so it was a fairly simple task. Then Lily screamed "Snivellus! Get your greasy ass down here!" she stomped her foot impatiently, a furious look on her face. She stood near twin stone staircases, waiting for her favorite Slytherin to reveal himself.

Finally, they heard a door slam shut, and the greasy haired boy stomped down the stairs. He froze at the entrance. What the hell was this Gryffindor doing here? Then he saw the unconscious Slytherins and whipped out his wand. The boys under the invisibility cloak gasped and Sirius hit Snivellus with a stunning spell. Lily looked behind her furiously. She stomped over to them, and reached around blindly until she got to the invisibility cloak and whipped it off.

"Why'd you do that? I was just about to have some fun," she asked quietly, with a tone that Sirius didn't like. This was not his favorite girl. This… person sounded like a Slytherin: heartless, cruel, and hurt.

"Lils, we've got to get out of here before someone comes-" he started, then the door began to shift, and Sirius pulled the cloak around the three of them.

Someone very short stepped into the common room, saw all of the Slytherins, gasped and ran away. Sirius ran for the door after him, and the three of them got away before anybody saw.

They made it up to their dormitory, though the painting of the fat lady was suspicious of a bodiless voice. Then they threw the cloak off of themselves and Lily jumped out the window, to the roof and into the girls dormitory. She managed to catch her breath, then the portrait was slammed.

"Who… Who…" the voice of McGonagall demanded. Lily climbed down the stairs boldly and entered the common room calmly. She was met by Sirius and James at the bottom.

Professor McGonagall was standing near the portrait, staring down some very alarmed Gryffindors. Lily tried to imitate them, and found herself wanting to laugh. She felt cold and cruel and she didn't like it, but there was no turning back now. She listened as Professor McGonagall calmed down slightly and hissed, "There had been an attack in the Slytherin Common Room."

All of the Gryffindors gasped, including Sirius, James and Lily. They didn't expect it to be referred to as an 'attack'. Their looks of surprise were genuine, if not for the same reason as everyone else's.

"Yes, it's terrible." McGonagall said grimly, "All of the Slytherins in the common room were stunned. None of them spoke straight when they came to, but there was one interesting story. Miss Evans… Where were you ten minutes ago?"

"Me? Professor?" Lily asked, trying to look innocent and succeeding to a scary degree. Only those who knew better were not convinced of her innocence. "I was upstairs, packing. I realize I should have done it earlier, but I just didn't want to think about leaving this place. I didn't want to think about going home… Everyone gets along so well here, professor. I just don't understand why anyone would want to ruin that!" she cried, though she managed to stop a tear from leaking out. She was quite caught up in the performance, and it sickened the boys. McGonagall, however, looked very convinced.

"All right, then, Miss. Evans. I'm sorry for accusing you, could I speak with Mr. Black and Mr. Potter?" she demanded next. The boys looked shocked and Lily looked terrified and sickened with herself.

"Where were you ten minutes ago?" she asked quietly. She had taken a liking to James because of his success in her class, transfiguration, but Sirius had no bias with her, and she wouldn't think twice giving him detention for the rest of his life.

"We were planning to prank Sniv-Severus," Sirius said quietly. Everyone was shocked, even James, why would he admit to that??? "But we weren't going to do it until after dinner, Professor. Really, we've been upstairs planning for almost an hour!"

Nobody had seen Lily that whole time because the other girls were off 'flirting' with some Ravenclaws, and nobody had seen the boys because, well, they were under the cloak, weren't they?

"Can anybody prove either of these boys stories incorrect?" the professor demanded, everybody shook their heads, then the professor sighed and left the room. Lily flew up to her room and to the roof.

She sat in her favorite corner, shaking uncontrollably. She had almost gotten her best friends expelled! It was nearly seven o'clock and she could see the last of the sun setting, and the moon beginning to rise.

"Yeah, but did you see her eyes? That wasn't Lily!" Sirius' voice could be heard from the boys window. "But still… you've got to admit…" he said sadly.

"I still can't believe she almost got us expelled!" James said loudly.

That was it. Lily couldn't take it any longer. She began to cry silent tears, still shaking. There hadn't even been an end of term feast, and it was all her fault. All of the Slytherins had been 'attacked'. That was the word they used… Everything was her fault. Everything in the whole world. She had even begun blaming herself for her parents death. If she had just been there for her mother… Maybe she could have held on for a bit longer; just a bit, and her dad wouldn't have been alone, he wouldn't have…

Lily had said that she was going to move on, that she would stop thinking like this, but she couldn't. She really couldn't control her feelings towards her parents, and right that moment, all that she felt was guilt.

She had almost gotten James and Sirius expelled. They wouldn't ever want to speak to her again. They wouldn't want her to spend the summer with them… How would she get home? To Petunias home…. Certainly her snobby sister wouldn't pick her up with half a days notice… She could walk.

Yes, that was it. Tomorrow when she got off the train she would- The train. What would she do about the train? She couldn't sit alone, there were too many students to have an empty compartment …

Fine. She would have to sit with somebody, but she wouldn't sit with the boys. They didn't want her to. They didn't… They didn't want her. They hated her. They all hated her. Everything was her fault.

Sirius could hear sniffling from the roof, but didn't know what to do. His heart was being torn apart. He loved her like a sister, and his sister was hurt, but his sister had gone crazy earlier, and his brother, James was hurting, too. Two of his best friends were feeling terrible. Two of his best friends were killing him, and the third… tonight the third would turn into a vicious monster... and he couldn't help any of them.

The werewolf, Lily thought. Yes, the werewolf. If she went into the Shrieking Shack, the monster there would take care of her. She wouldn't have to worry about any of this any more. Everything would stop. It would all just stop.

Lily stood and wiped the tears form her eyes, she crept back into her window.

_Good_, Sirius thought, _she's all better, and I can stay with James._

Lily stepped into the common room and silently went out the portrait. Nobody thought much of the tiny girl leaving so late. Most of them snuck out after curfew on a regular basis, to get a snack from the kitchens or something like that.

Sirius' ring was lit up like a fire truck, but he didn't notice. He had long since stashed it on top of his bedside table. He didn't want it now. He didn't need it squeezing his finger to death and turning brighter than any light on the planet, which it also was.

Lily made her way out of a passageway behind a large mirror, the one that she had found with her friends, the Marauders, earlier in the year. She felt a stab of pain when she realized that she would never see them again, but she kept moving. Just a few minutes left now. Just a few minutes left. She prodded the Whomping Willow with a long stick and crept into the hole in the bottom.

Sirius didn't know why, but he glanced at the ring on his bedside table. It was as red as it could go and was so tiny around that no human finger could fit. "Oh God, Lily… What have you done," he muttered, then tore down to the common room and yelled, "Has anyone seen Lily Evans???"

"Yeah, she just left. You guys should really leave at the same time. She looked damn miserable, muttered something about a furry issue-" an irritable seventh year informed him. He had been robbed of his graduation feast and was very angry about it.

"Oh God," Sirius muttered, then he glanced out the window just in time to see the very large, very motion-less Whomping Willow. Sirius wished that James was with him. He had left long before to the Room of Requirement, but Sirius didn't have to go get him. He had to get to Lily!

_Just a few more minutes_, Lily thought dully to herself. She had fallen down the tunnel that was just inside the hole in the Whomping Willow, and saw before her a second tunnel that seemed to stretch for miles. _Alright_, she thought with a sigh, then she started to shuffle down the dark tunnel, still thinking dangerous thoughts about her parent's death and her own, soon to come.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god," Sirius muttered as he tore out the common room and to the nearest passageway to outside. "Oh god, oh god, oh god," he continued the mantra. Lily was screaming in his mind. Being attacked and bitten by the werewolf form he imagined. The werewolf form from fantasies, a hairy beast that walked on all fours and swung a long tail, yellow menacing eyes, "Oh god, oh god, oh god"

_There, now_, Lily thought to herself. She had finally reached the end of the very long tunnel. There was a trap door above her, and she was taking a last minute of life before opening and facing the werewolf.

_Ok, ok, ok_, Sirius thought, his mind racing and blank at the same time. He froze the Whomping Willow with a long stick that he thought Lily had used as well, then slithered down the tunnel, urging himself faster, faster.

_Hmm, ok, I think I'm ready._ Lily thought to herself.

"NO!" Sirius shouted. Wait, Sirius? "No! Lily, don't do it!" he exclaimed. He had urged himself to go so much faster that now he could make out the red haired girl in front of him, under the trap door…. To the Shrieking Shack.

"Sirius?" a scarily calm voice asked, "What are you doing here?" Lily was so deadly calm. So at peace with the whole thing. Sirius thought he would throw up.

"Lily, you don't want to do this!" Sirius exclaimed, trying so, so hard to make her believe it.

"'Lily'?" she mused, "You've never actually called me that, have you? I guess it's just proof of what's changed…" She was still deadly calm, and it frightened Sirius worse than the thought of the werewolf just above him. He could hear him snarling and gnashing his jaws, pacing back and forth, waiting for the trap door to open… Waiting for his prey.

"Lilikins?" Sirius pleaded, he was sure that he was either going to throw up or cry. She was so close to death. Who thought like that?

"Yes?" Lily asked, differently. Her voice had changed completely, no longer its deadly calm. Now it was warm, like the Lily that Sirius knew.

"Lils, we've got to get out of here!" Sirius cried, hoping to God or whoever was up there that his Lilikins was back.

"I can't. He's waiting for me." Lily said. It had been to good to be true. Her voice was hollow and dead again, her eyes held no life. The usually shining green emeralds looked more like mold. They had lightened twelve shades at least, and she was even paler than she normally was.

"Lils, we've got to go!" Sirius cried, "there's a werewolf up there!"

"I know, he's waiting." Then Lily turned towards the trap door and stepped inside, shutting the door behind her.

Sirius was trapped below. While Lily was light on her own, there was now Remus standing on the trap door as well. A very heavy Remus as he was transformed into a werewolf.

Above him, Lily snapped to attention. In front of her was the picture of her nightmares. The gray shadow from her vision was here, and was realer than ever. The thing's paws were bloody and its ribs stuck too far out. He was drooling slightly. His fangs protruding from his mouth. His yellow eyes bore into her soul. The pupils grew wider for a moment, and turned dark blue, then snap, and they were back. Remus was back to the wolf. He could smell blood and he was going to kill her.

Lily's mind raced for all of three second, then shut off again. The werewolf stared at her. She knew it was going to kill her.

She shut her eyes, and felt herself stretch out considerably. She got warmer, and her sense of smell heightened immensely. She opened her eyes again. The bit of wall that she could see from the corner of her eyes was different now. She looked down maybe three feet. That wasn't right. She lifted a heavy paw with ease, wait…. A paw? Lily looked at herself, amazed. She was a brilliantly white tiger, with bold black stripes. Her paws had tufts of fur sticking out between her toes. She was the lioness from her vision.

All at once, the werewolf charged. He slammed into her and her mind flickered, then shut off again. She was still a tigress, but the tiger was taking over for a moment. Lily was on holiday in the Swiss Alps. And glad to be there.

Lily roared and the werewolf looked frightened, then it howled and the hairs on Lily's back stood on end. It charged again and she flung it to the dusty floor.

Below, Sirius could hear something growling, _Oh god, was something else up there too???_ But he felt a tug of calm about the whole thing. He was worried about Lily. Amazingly worried, but he had the strange feeling that she wasn't. That actually worried him, too. He was a mess, pacing back and forth under the door.

Lily/tigress tackled Remus/werewolf and held him there, then she bit him once more, hard, on the neck. Not enough to kill him, but enough to warm him. He would leave her alone now.

The werewolf's pupils grew wider and his eyes turned dark blue again. Remus was back, and he was staring at the tigress with frightened eyes. Lily snapped her teeth once more at him, then grabbed the trap door with her mouth and leapt down, letting it slam with a satisfactory bang.

Sirius was now officially freaked out even more. There, in front of him was a beautiful white tigress. His first instinct was to run as fast as he could in the other direction, but the thing's eyes caught his. They were emerald green. Didn't Lily say that she saw a snow tigress?

"Lils?" he whispered. Quickly, Lily's fur vanished. She straightened up and lost her lovely ears and tail. She grew her very auburn hair, and smiled at him.

"I'm back, Sirius," she whispered. She ran forward and latched onto her best friend, "Thank you… Thank you so much," Then tears poured from her eyes, from Sirius' too. He held her tightly…

His favorite girl, his Lilikins… was back.

72


End file.
